Who Is the Most Successful American Idol?
Last night, after a record 132 million votes were cast between 21-year-old Georgian Phillip Phillips and 16-year-old Californian Jessica Sanchez, American Idol crowned Phil Phil the winner of season 11.
But what exactly does it mean to win American Idol? Aside from netting an album deal and benefitting from the Idol promotional machine, how does winning the most-watched show in America actually affect a long-term musical career?
We went through all the Idols—from Season 1 vocal powerhouse Kelly Clarkson to country megastar Carrie Underwood to last season's country champ Scotty McCreery—and took at look at how they've fared over the years in terms of U.S. album sales (not including EPs and compilations), Top 40 singles, GRAMMY wins and chart positions for each of their albums. [All figures come from Billboard].
So here's our breakdown of 10 years of American Idol winners by the numbers! If you want to cut to the chase and find out which artists reign supreme and which singers are still struggling to break the one million sales mark, scroll to the bottom of the page for our full analysis.
8m
1h 36m
20m
2m
24m
21m
2m
2m
1h 15m
44m
1h 25m
24m
24m
1m
1m
21m
41m
41m
3602s
20m
20m
1h 13m
46s
6m
20m
46s
51s
46s
1m
21m
20m
21m
2m
1h 35m
41m
20m
57m
2m
1m
21m
30s
21m
3m
4m
10m
1m
17m
14m
6m
7m
1h 45m
1h 2m
2m
1m
1h 21m
44m
45m
21m
20m
1h 20m
1h 27m
23m
1h 34m
1m
1m
20m
1m
46m
1h 23m
20m
21m
59s
1h 22m
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22m
1h 3m
23m
48m
22m
57s
1h 15m
9m
20m
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21m
1h 22m
1h 30m
1h 7m
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20m
57m
1h 17m