 | | Though Taylor Hicks' quirky soulfulness made him 2006's American Idol, runner-up Katharine McPhee's classic good looks and voice and affinity for traditional pop made her a strong contender throughout the season. |
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 | | Only 16 and a junior in high school in Snellville, GA, Diana DeGarmo was the youngest finalist of American Idol 2004, but you wouldn't have guessed it from her powerful, confident voice. |
 | | Although country vocalist Kristy Lee Cook enjoyed some degree of success as a teenager, she didn't receive her big break until 2007, when the 23-year-old Oregon native auditioned for the seventh season of American Idol. |
 | | Husky-voiced American Idol singing sensation Harold "Bo" Bice hailed from Helena, AL, and brought his Southern sensibility with him to the fourth season of Fox's long-running talent contest. |
 | | Best known as the beatboxing contestant on season six of American Idol, Blake Lewis hails from Bothell, Washington. |
 | | Before she appeared in the seventh season of American Idol, Brooke White cut her teeth as a small-time singer/songwriter in the vein of Carly Simon and Carole King, two icons whose influence helped her earn a fifth place finish in the Idol competition. |
 | | David Archuleta became one of the most recognizable figures on television in 2008, when his tenor vocals and boyish charm helped earn him a second-place finish on American Idol. |
 | | Kimberley Locke was born and raised in Tennessee. She grew up singing, both in church and for fun, and by high school was a member of her school's singing and performance group. |
 | | The winner of Fox TV's first American Idol competition during the summer of 2002, Kelly Clarkson went from an anonymous talent to a nationally known singer in a matter of months, performing for an audience of millions. |
 | | Bo Bice proved that American Idol could have a rocker as a finalist, but Chris Daughtry proved that the show could generate a successful rocker outside the context of the show. |
 | | Jordin Sparks may have been the youngest American Idol when she won the title on the reality show's sixth season, but the Glendale, AZ, resident had already packed plenty of accomplishments into 17 years. |
 | | In 2005, singer Kellie Pickler landed a spot in the fifth season of American Idol. Though she finished sixth, the former waitress and Miss North Carolina contestant charmed American audiences with her Southern twang and blonde ambition, resulting in a contract with BNA Records that yielded her debut album, Small Town Girl, in the fall of 2006 and an eponymous sophomore release in 2008, which yielded Pickler's first Top Ten hit, “Best Days of Your Life,” a song she co-wrote with Taylor Swift. |
 | | The first country singer to win American Idol, Carrie Underwood grew up in the small town of Checotah, Oklahoma, and began singing with her church at the tender age of three. |
 | | With his raspy, soulful voice and salt-and-pepper hair, Taylor Hicks was one of the unlikeliest contestants to make it to the final round of American Idol, but his quirky charm and rousing delivery of songs like "Takin' It to the Streets" won Hicks a devoted legion of fans called the Soul Patrol and the title of the fifth-season American Idol. |
 | | As the second-place contestant on Fox television's second season of American Idol, vocalist Clay Aiken wowed television audiences with his Southern charm, sweet demeanor, and powerful tenor voice, all of which combined to make him a pop star (and, later, a fixture on Broadway). |
 | | Boasting mature, rock-influenced vocals that belied her young age, 17 year-old Allison Iraheta became the most popular female in American Idol's 2009 season. |
 | | With an acoustic guitar, dreadlocks, and a flower child disposition, Jason Castro spun his singer/songwriter appeal into a fourth-place finish during American Idol's 2008 season. |
 | | Rock-influenced country singer Bucky Covington first rose to fame in 2006 as a contestant on the televised talent hunt American Idol. |
 | | The runner-up to Kelly Clarkson on Fox TV's first American Idol: The Search for a Superstar competition, curly-haired heartthrob Justin Guarini managed to win the hearts of millions of teenage girls, if not the entire contest. |
 | | Phil Stacey's first appearance on the sixth season of American Idol was a memorable one, as it was revealed that the Navy officer was missing the birth of his second daughter in order to audition for the show in Memphis. |
 | | As a Grammy-nominated songwriter in the pop/rock vein, Kara DioGuardi worked with some of the industry's most marketable musicians during the '90s and 2000s. |
 | | Best known as a contestant on the third season of Fox's American Idol, vocalist Jon Peter Lewis became recognized as much for his impressive vocal range as his goofy personality. |
 | | Praised as much for her wide vocal range and passionate delivery as she was for her elegant style, Tamyra Gray was seen by many as the singer who, in a perfect world, should have won the first edition of American Idol. |
 | | Josh Gracin was born October 18, 1980, and grew up in Westland, Michigan. He performed at fairs, music competitions, and other venues as a young man, and did the vocal for a demo version of a song ("She Loves Me," written by Ken Salaets and Tim Barbor) in Nashville in 1996 when he was only 16 years old. |
 | | Before becoming a front-runner in the eighth season of American Idol, Adam Lambert made his name in the theater world, where he performed alongside Val Kilmer in the debut production of Ten Commandments: The Musical and landed an understudy role in a touring production of Wicked. |
 | | Although he largely stuck to gospel and soul music during his time on American Idol, Danny Gokey transformed himself into a country artist following the show’s conclusion. |
 | | American Idol finalist Corey Clark began his musical career at the age of 12 singing backup for Barry Manilow. |
 | | Chris Sligh received his big break during the sixth season of American Idol, where his self-deprecating humor and tenor vocals earned him a tenth-place finish. |
 | | A striking young woman with a strong vocal resemblance to the young Whitney Houston and a large mop of blonde corkscrew curls, Leona Lewis won the third series of the British reality talent show The X Factor in a landslide. |
 | | Vocalist Elliott Yamin first gained recognition as the second runner-up on the fifth season of the reality show American Idol. |
 | | One of the most skilled and likable contestants on the fifth season of American Idol, Paris Bennett is, respectively, the daughter and granddaughter of Sounds of Blackness members Jamecia Bennett and Ann Nesby. |
 | | A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Carmen Rasmusen was born March 25, 1985, in Edmonton, Canada, though she grew up in Bountiful, Utah. |
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 | | Although born in Perth, Australia, singer/songwriter Michael Johns pursued a music career after moving to America, where he cut his teeth as an Atlanta-based solo artist before piecing a band together in Los Angeles. |
 | | Although she never reached the commercial heights of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore proved to be one of the more resilient members of the late-'90s teen pop explosion. |
 | | Jasmine Trias is a Pilipino-American recording artist who gained fame through finishing in third place on the third season of popular television show American Idol. |
 | | Taking cues from her favorite songwriters -- including Melissa Etheridge, Janis Joplin, and Sista Otis -- Crystal Bowersox brought a relaxed, folksy vibe to the ninth season of American Idol. |
 | | Fiery-haired vocalist and former American Idol contestant John Stevens was born in 1987 and raised in East Amherst, NY. |
 | | Partway through the second American Idol competition in early 2003, guest judge Gladys Knight christened corpulent crooner Ruben Studdard a "velvet teddy bear," a nod to his smooth, Luther Vandross-styled voice and his Barry White-sized girth. |
 | | Originally from New Zealand, Natasha Bedingfield grew up in southeast London, where she and her siblings were raised around music. |
 | | Best known as a contestant on the fifth season of Fox's American Idol, vocalist Ace Young is also a Broadway performer and contemporary pop vocalist. |
 | | Born to Greek-American parents in 1975, vocalist Constantine Maroulis grew up listening to a wide range of music in his suburban New Jersey home, with particular favorites ranging from Frank Sinatra to Guns N' Roses. |
 | | By age 21, vocalist Colbie Caillat had evolved swiftly from an aspiring R&B/folk singer to a pop sensation, a feat that owed as much to the marketing assistance of MySpace as the meteoric popularity of her debut single, "Bubbly. |
 | | In the early '90s he was a Mousekateer and even played Clarence "Wipeout" Adams on Emerald Cove, a soap opera aired within The Mickey Mouse Club. |
 | | Before winning the ninth season of American Idol, Lee DeWyze released two independent albums that introduced his mix of husky vocals and acoustic singer/songwriter fare. |
 | | One of the most likable singers on the third season of the nationally televised talent contest American Idol, George Huff was voted off halfway through the competition but returned to the public eye as a spiritual-pop singer signed to the Christian label Word. |
 | | Although not the first contestant to play his own instrument on American Idol, Kris Allen benefitted more than most from the experience, and his coffeehouse singer/songwriter vibe earned him a first place finish in 2009. |
 | | Teen pop star Jennifer Love Hewitt was already a veteran of several TV series (including Kids Incorporated) and had recorded a 1992 Japanese LP when she signed on to appear in Fox TV's popular series Party of Five in 1995. |
 | | Few bands did more than Nickelback to establish the force of slick, commercially minded post-grunge in the 2000s. |
