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
24m
21m
2m
44m
26m
24m
24m
1m
21m
41m
21m
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46s
46s
21m
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43m
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44m
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1h 12m
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1h 34m
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1m
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1h 22m
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48m
1h 3m
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1h 27m
46m
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1h 22m
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1h 17m
57m
1h 7m
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1h 27m
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56m
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44m
44m
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1h 30m
44m