Hi again, back with the December updates and boy there are alot of them so here goes:
Birthdays
Lots of birthdays to report with the first being Luke Menard of season 7 who celebrated his 31st birthday on December 2nd. Luke has been given a true gift from the holidays as he is now Cancer free. Shortly after his season ended he was diagnosed to have Hodgkins Lymphoma. After much treatment he is now once again a healthy guy who is currently touring with his acapella group Chapter 6.
Judge Kara DioGuardi celebrated a birthday on December 9th. She will be on the new season of American Idol once again. She has had a busy year by getting married last summer and has helped to write numerous songs for many of our idols.
December 11th saw Brandon Rogers celebrating his 31st birthday. Since his season 6 participation in idol he has kept busy by appearing on the show "Bones" which also co-starred season 5 Ace Young in 2008. In May 2009 he released an R&B album entitled "Automatic". And you may remember he was a correspondent for season 8's Idol Tonight show. Check out his website for his music, it's great.
Jasmine Murray of season 8 celebrated her 17th birthday on December 14th. Since idol this cute young lady is making numerous guest appearances and hopes to start working on a debut album soon.
Anoop Desai of season 8 turned 23 years old on December 20th. Since the tour ended in September, Anoop has made several guest appearances and will be releasing a new single come this Spring.
Another December 20th birthday was David Cook of season 7. He turned 27 years old. He has had great success with his career since his debut album went platinum after only 3 months on the charts. It peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the Top Rock chart. He has earned one Teen Choice Award and also a Nashville Music Award for his single "The Time of My Life". Great going David!
American Idol Jordin Sparks turned 20 years old on December 22nd. This season 6 cutie debut album went platinum. Her second album "Battlefield" appears to be heading the same direction as it debuted at #7 on the Top 200 charts. In 2009, she was on tour part of the time with The Jonas Brothers and also with Britney Spears. She has earned a NAACP award, 2 Bet Awards, one Teen Choice Award, one AMA award and also a People's Choice Award. Great success for such a young girl.
Our very own Ryan Seacrest celebrated a birthday on December 24th. This Christmas Eve guy has his hands full what with being on American Idol as host for the past 8 seasons and will book another season when Idol resumes this month. Besides AI he as a radio show, is an entertainment reporter, producer and entrepreneur. He has been nominated several times for an Emmy (sadly he has yet to win). This last New Year's Eve he was the host for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve. Keep going Ryan we adore you!
Chris Daughtry of season 5 turned 30 years old on December 26th. His debut album was quite successful with over 5 million copies sold. His second album "Leave This Town" debuted at #7 on the Billboard charts. He has earned one AMA award and has been nominated 4 times for a Grammy. Currently he is on tour promoting his second album and also appeared with Ryan on the New Year's Eve special.
Season 8 runner-up David Archuleta turned 19 years old on December 28th. This young lad had two successful album releases under his belt and has been on 5 tours since his idol days. He has won 5 Teen Choice awards and also an ALMA award in 2009. He had 4 #1 hits from his albums. Currently he is writing a book entitled "Chords of Strength" and also working on a new album which should be released in 2010.
Our last birthday of the month belongs to LaToya London of season 3. She turned the big 30 in 2009 on December 29th. Since idol she has released a debut album (2005) which scored nicely on the charts. In 2006/2007 she released two more singles and is currently working on a new album. She also starred with season 3's winner Fantasia in the Broadway production of "The Color Purple" in the role of Nettie. Way to go girl!
Other News:
Scott MacIntyre of season 8 put out a Christmas EP entitled "Christmas Angel" which is available on ITunes. On December 18th he performed on the annual "Christmas Pudding" event that was created by none other than Alice Cooper. Others who appeared included Lita Ford, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister fame and the band Warrant. Way to go Scott!
John Stevens from season 3 has been a busy guy since idol. He is currently performing with The Beantown Swing Orchestra and the group are hoping to become the voice of the "Foxwood" casino in Connecticut. Fans can vote for John until February 9th (check out his website for info). John also got his college degree, released a debut album and this past Christmas released his "Home For Christmas" cd. Nice going!
Season 4 finalist Vonzell Solomon is currently starring in "Oz: The Musical" in the dual parts as Glinda The Good Witch and also Auntie Em. She has done tons of acting and singing appearances since her season ended. Also in the musical with her are season 2's Rickey Smith, season 4 Scott Savol and Mikalah Gordon of season 4.
Carrie Underwood got engaged in December to Mike Fisher of the Ottawa Senators hockey team. No official date is set yet for the wedding. Carrie also had a Christmas special in December with guests Brad Paisley and David Cook. She has earned numerous awards and is currently on tour promoting her 3rd album release "Play On". She has topped our own Kelly Clarkson for the most albums sold as of this month.
Speaking of which have to let you know our idols are doing great on the charts since the beginning of the show American Idol. Kelly Clarkson has had 54 #1 hits followed by Carrie Underwood who has 42 and Chris Daughtry raked in 35. Our wonderful Taylor has scored 3 #1's. Altogether the idols have had 257 #1 hits. You can check out the idol website for the complete list in the News section.
Season 8 Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta released debut albums which are doing quite nicely on the charts. Also Kris and Allison were on the Fox New Year's Eve special. Both Kris and Adam made guest appearances on the show "So You Think You Can Dance" and both are currently up for a People's Choice Award. Great going all!
Elliott Yamin is on tour promoting his current release of "Fight for Love". I have heard his single of the album entitled "Can't Keep On Loving You" several times on the radio and it is a goodie. He recently got back from a USO tour in Guam and Japan.
On the Billboard Decade and Year end lists several of our idols made the lists. They are Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Clay Aiken, Elliott Yamin, Jordan Sparks, David Cook, David Archuleta, Ruben Studdard, Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, Josh Gracin, Kimberley Locke, Mandisa and our very own Taylor Hicks. These lists show how successful people are in the music field. Bravo all!
Season 7 Jason Castro has used his personal web site for several webisodes depicting his life since his idol days which include recording an album release. You can see his newest single "Let's Just Fall In Love Again" on the American Idol website.
Four of our idols are up for Grammys. They are Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Mandisa and Ruben Studdard. Check out the Grammy website for the details.
Danny Gokey of season 8 has gone country and will debut his first single release on The Grand Ole Opry on January 8th. The single "My Best Days Are Ahead of Me" can be heard on the CMT website. It is a great song in my opinion. Look for his full album release sometime in 2010.
On January 11th a new reality show featuring season 3 Fantasia will air on VH1. This show will chronicle her life with her career and being a single mom.
Matt Giraud of season 8 is working on some new songs for his debut album release. He hopes to get a record deal but will go independent if he does not get one. His fans however are campaigning heavily for the record deal. In the meantime he will have a solo concert on January 29th in Grand Rapids, Michigan at The Forest Hills Fine Arts Center. He has kept in touch with many of his co-idols from his season and also Paula Abdul who plans to attend his concert. Coming in February or March he will have a duet single out with Anna Wilson to the song "You Don't Know Me" which was written by Eddy Arnold and Cindy Walker. Many have recorded this song in the past which include the legendary Elvis Presley.
Constantine Maroulis of season 4 currently stars in the Broadway production of "Rock of Ages". He received a Tony nomination for his role as Drew. On Broadway. com he received the honor of 2009's Star of The Year. You can read all about it on the Idol website and also view his acceptance speech. Way to go Constantine.
Last but not least is as you know season 9 of American Idol starts on January 12th. This time around we will have 3 weeks of auditions from Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Orlando, Dallas, Los Angeles and Denver. Then comes 2 weeks of Hollywood rounds which will produce our top 24 contestants. As you know several guest judges will join Randy, Simon and Kara during the audition period. In Hollywood, Ellen DeGeneres will join the 3 judges permanently. Once again "Idol Gives Back" comes on the season which will be on April 21st. Different format for sure this year and I will so miss Paula as a judge.
Whew, well I just posted a mouthful of news so now it's time to end this with wishing each and everyone a great day!
Front Page 
Subject: December 2009 Updates 
Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:12 am
