Kristy Lee Cook

Kristy Lee Cook (born January 18, 1984) is an American Idol singer and a finalist on the seventh season of American Idol. She is not related to fellow Idol contestant David Cook.

Biography

Early years

Kristy Lee Cook was born in Seattle, Washington to Larry and Carlene Cook but currently lives in Selma, Oregon. She signed her first contract with BMI in 2001, when she was 17 years old; Britney Spears agreed to make a cameo appearance in her first music video. In her American Idol intro video, she said that she enjoys riding horses and kick boxing. She is the sister-in-law of Arena Football quarterback John Dutton. According to her RMG page, Cook was signed to RCA Records in 1999 and the first artist signed to Spears' production company. RCA put Cook, along with other artists, on hold and eventually dropped her.

America Idol

Cook auditioned for American Idol in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She sang " Amazing Grace". All three judges liked her voice and sent her straight through to Hollywood. While in Hollywood, her first song didn't impress the judges. For her second and final chance, she sang "Amazing Grace" again; as a result, she became one of the top 24 contestants in the semi-finals. On March 12th, Kristy was placed in the bottom 3 alongside Syesha Mercado and David Hernandez. She was declared safe. On March 19, she was placed in the bottom three again with Carly Smithson and Amanda Overmyer, but once again secured a place in the following round. In addition, with her most recent performance she was able to lock a spot in the American Idol Top 10 Concert Tour for the upcoming summer.

Syesha Mercado

Syesha Mercado (born January 3, 1987) is a singer-songwriter, actress, and finalist on American Idol 7. She currently resides and attends Florida International University in Miami, Florida.

Biography

Syesha is of Black and Puerto Rican descent. She was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but grew up in Sarasota, Florida and graduated from Booker High School - Visual and Performing Art in 2005, where she was in the Theater department. At the 2005 Florida Theater Conference and The 2005 South Eastern Theater Conference Syesha won "Best Supporting Actress" for her role as The Sour Kangaroo in Seussical the Musical.

American Idol

She auditioned for American Idol Season 7 in Miami, Florida singing "Think" by Aretha Franklin where she made it to Hollywood with all three judges saying 'yes'. When she arrived in Hollywood she had lost her voice and insisted on going on vocal rest. She was seen communicating through pen and paper throughout the week. She sang "Chain of Fools" and was accepted into the top 24. She currently stands in the Top 9 American Idol Season 7 contestants.

source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syesha_Mercado

Carly Smithson

Carly Smithson (née Hennessy) (born September 12, 1983) is an Irish singer, and a finalist on the seventh season of American Idol.

Biography

Early Years

Carly Smithson was born in Dublin, Ireland to Luke Hennessy and Mary Murray. She grew up in Dublin. When she was 14, she moved to the United States. She currently lives in San Diego, California with her American husband.

Career

Smithson released an album for MCA Records called Ultimate High in 2001 as Carly Hennessy. The album did not find an audience, selling fewer than 400 copies in the first three months despite MCA Records spending over $2 million on the production and promotion of the album. The album was released on November 13th, 2001. Its commercial failure was documented in an article in The Wall Street Journal. Despite low record sales, she later won a Meteor Award in 2003 for Best Irish Female Singer.

Hennessy was signed to MCA Records during the same time period that Randy Jackson (an American Idol judge) was the senior vice president of A&R at MCA Records. Hennessy was at MCA in 1999. Randy started at MCA in 1998 and was there for 4 years.

Some of Hennessy's music was written by Danielle Brisebois, who has also written for Natasha Bedingfield and Kelly Clarkson. One of the songs by Brisebois – "Just Missed The Train", originally recorded by Norwegian artist Trine Rein – was featured on both Smithson's album and Clarkson's debut album Thankful.

After failing to move more than 400 copies (in the first three months) of an album after having 4 years of artistic development and $2 million spent on development and promotion, Hennessy auditioned for American Idol in Las Vegas during the show's fifth season; she made it to Hollywood but was disqualified purportedly because her visa had expired. She married a US citizen at some point after this.

Hennessy (now going by her married name of Carly Smithson) successfully auditioned again for Season 7 of American Idol and made the top 24. Shortly thereafter, articles appeared in the mainstream press pointing out connections that had been reported in various blogs for the previous month ^{[11] [12]}. Smithson acknowledged her previous record deal on the February 20, 2008 episode of American Idol, and stated that the record label 'imploded'. Smithson was actually dropped from the label one year prior ^[13] to the purchase of MCA Records by Geffen Records. In other interviews, she blamed the album's failure to gain traction on the September 11 terrorist attacks^[14].

Smithson was declared safe on American Idol on March 26, 2008, and is now is part of the Top Nine Finalists.

Brooke White

Brooke White (born June 2, 1983) is an American singer and a finalist on the seventh season of American Idol.

Biography

Born in Mesa, Arizona, White graduated high school from Heritage Academy in 2001. She worked as a nanny prior to auditioning for American Idol. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. White currently lives with her husband in Van Nuys, California.

Career

White, who also plays the piano and guitar, began singing at age 15; her vocal skills and piano playing impressed all three judges during the Hollywood week of American Idol. White has also performed as a solo artist with a backup band for the last four years. Her first album, Songs from the Attic, was released on the independent label New Millennium Records Group in 2006, produced and co-written by Tim Simms.

White's first music video, "Free", was directed by Braden Barty and produced by Tim Simms. In the video, she acts out her story as a beauty school drop out who moves to Hollywood to pursue her singing career.

Albums

• Songs from the Attic (2006)

Tracklisting

1. "Free"
2. "The Way Things Used to Be"
3. "Dream On"
4. "Come to My Rescue"
5. "In Love"
6. "Like I Do"
7. "Change"
8. "Yellow"
9. "Let It Go"
10. "Follow Me"
11. "Keep Running"

source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_White

Jason Rene Castro

Jason Rene Castro (born March 25, 1987) is an American singer and finalist on season seven of the television series, American Idol.

Biography

Early life

Born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Rowlett, Texas, he currently resides in Rockwall, Texas. His parents, René & Betsy, are Colombian, and he is the first person in his family to be born in the United States, followed by younger siblings Michael & Jackie. He plays guitar and grew up playing drums and didn't start singing until he was in college.Castro attended Rowlett High School and graduated in 2005. He was a member of the high school soccer team. Castro was a junior, majoring in construction science at Texas A&M University before auditioning for American Idol.Jason is an active Christian and he was in the 5th grade choir.

Musical career

Castro performed with rock bands named Charlemagne and Keeping Lions. He auditioned for American Idol in Dallas, Texas. He wasn't shown on the television series until the finals due to legal restrictions on the songs he chose to perform. He has stated that his musical influences include Ray LaMontagne and Kirk Baxley.He made some appearances on the MTV reality show Cheyenne and was also featured in Cheyenne Kimball's music video "Hanging On".

Reaction to "Hallelujah" performance

Castro's rendition of the song "Hallelujah" performed on American Idol -- combined with the judges' favorable comments -- propelled droves of viewers to the iTunes Store to download the Jeff Buckley cover of the Leonard Cohen song, which propelled it to the #1 spot on iTunes' singles chart. Buckley's version of the song sold 178,000 digital downloads in the week following Castro's performance, to debut at #1 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart. According to the March 22, 2008 issue of Billboard Magazine this was the highest boost in digital sales a song had ever received after being performed by a contestant on American Idol. It was the first time Buckley's version of the song charted on a Billboard chart, as well as the first U.S. number one song on any chart for Buckley, who died May 29, 1997 at age 30.

David Cook

Biography

Cook was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi but after two years his family relocated to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where he attended the prestigious Pine Crest School and later graduated from Boyd Anderson High School. Cook began his musical career at the age of five with his family, The Cook Family Singers. His parents divorced in 1980, which brought an end to four generations of the musical group. Cook continued singing both gospel and secular music. Cook maintained residency in Ft. Lauderdale until 1990 when he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Early life

In his early life while performing with his family, Cook suffered at the hands of a father with a severe drinking problem. His father would become very violent with David's mother and all of the children after becoming intoxicated. After many years of this abuse Cook developed many psychological problems that ended up following him through to his life as an adult. Cook developed a severe Dissociative Identity Disorder coupled with psychogenic amnesia. Cook recalls having periods of "missing time" but never really understood why it was happening. In 1990 the disorders finally came full front when Cook experienced what they thought was a full blown stroke while in Ft. Lauderdale and was rushed to Coral Springs Medical Hospital. Cook checked himself out of the hospital and disappeared from his Florida home and was found five months later in a Charlotte, NC hospital with similar health complaints. Cook had been around Charlotte for five months and no one realized that there was anything wrong with him until he started developing stroke symptoms again. Doctors finally realized that Cook's problems were not organic and sent him to see specialists. Cook had no recollection of leaving Florida, nor what he had done during his five months in Charlotte. When asked, he stated that, "It was like someone switching off a light and then switching it back on."

Cook's story has been told on many occasions and through various media and television shows. The creators of the television series Touched by an Angel filmed an episode entitled, "Show Me the Way Home" based on Cook's life. The episode portrays a Christian recording star that leaves his career after many tragic events and finding trouble in his walk with God. In the end, he overcomes his trials and returns to the stage and ministry with the help of the angels. The 700 Club also did a full length documentary on Cook that was aired throughout the world. Cook is the author of the published religious self help book Inspirational Words, which outlines most of his ordeal and how he eventually overcame the disorder.

Cook currently maintains residency in both Ft Lauderdale, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina, US. He lives with his adopted son Shawn. He was married for four years but had the marriage annulled.

source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L_Cook

Ramiele Malubay

Ramiele Malubay
Biography
Birthplace: Saudi Arabia
Birthday: September 6, 1987

Ramiele Malubay currently lives in Miramar, FL, but was born in Saudi Arabia on Sept. 6, 1987. She spent her early years in the Philippines and has been singing since she was 12 years old. Before "American Idol," she was attending school and was a hostess at a local sushi restaurant. She also plays the piano and guitar and has earned rave reviews from the judges who continue to marvel that such a powerful, controlled voice is coming out of such a petite girl. One of the more emotional contestants, Malubay was seen crying several times on elimination night; most vividly when her best friend and self-described "twin," Danny Noriega, was eliminated the night the final 12 were decided.

Controversy
She was the subject of a minor controversy when a number of personal pictures came to light; one features Malubay's hand on a co-worker's breast, another one shows two of Malubay's friends touching her breasts.

David Archuleta

David Archuleta is one of the Top 24 finalists of the current season of American Idol. He auditioned in San Diego and blew away the judges. Of course, what is American Idol without some controversy? David has come under fire because of his previous Star Search win when he was 12 years old. Do you think he is overqualified?

David Archuleta Biography

As a biography, David was born on December 28, 1990 in Miami, Florida. He is 17 years old. David lived in different cities in Florida until he was six years old. His family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah in February of 1997. Music is in his genes, as his mother is a singer and his father is a jazz trumpet player. He started singing at the age of 7. He entered a Utah Talent Competition at 10 years old, performing “I Will Always Love You”. He received a standing ovation after his performance. He performed on the Jenny Jones show and later won the Star Search title at age 12.

A couple years ago, David was affected by a vocal paralysis where he could hardly even speak. He went to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor and they had said that surgery was an option but it was risky. David opted to not have the surgery and recovered without. Once I heard of David’s ordeal, sure, he got my sympathy vote, but just listening to his smooth voice he won me over!! He has been dubbed as the one to beat this season.

Early life

Archuleta lives in Murray, Utah and is a student at Murray High School. If his bid to become the next American Idol fails he plans to continue school and keep singing. The only regular job he has had was over the summer of 2007 as a sound "techie" at a park amphitheater. He once suffered partial vocal paralysis but refrained from risky surgery and feels he has fully recovered.

Archuleta started singing when he was six because he was inspired by a Les Misérables 10th-anniversary video he was watching, "That musical is what started all of this." He started performing as an entertainer at ten years old when he participated in the Utah Talent Competition singing "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton; he received a standing ovation, and won the kid division. This led to Archuleta competing on Star Search, appearances on The Jenny Jones Show and CBS' The Early Show as well as meeting the finalists from American Idol's first season for whom he performed a spontaneous a cappella rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls.

Amanda Overmyer

Biography

Overmyer was born in Little Rock, AR, in 1984 while her father served there in the United States Air Force. Overmyer and her family eventually moved back to Indiana where she grew up in Camden, Indiana and attended Delphi Community High School, in Delphi, Indiana.

In her late teens, Overmyer joined a local band. Since then she has also been the lead singer of several bands, including Steeleto and Ruinaces. She lists Bob Seger, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Guns 'n' Roses as among her chief influences.

She received a nursing degree from Ivy Tech Community College, and is a health-care specialist dealing predominantly in respiratory issues. Amanda is from Lafayette, IN, which is Axl Rose's hometown.

As a young girl competing in 4-H sponsored talent contests and later in WAZY Idol in Lafayette, Indiana, Amanda always dreamt of a career in music. Although Overmeyer already has a successful career as a nurse, she also has an urge to see if a professional music career could be her future. For Overmyer, trying out for American Idol gave her the best chance to test the waters without risk.

Since her elimination she has been slated to play at The Whisky a Go Go bar in West Hollywood, and is also reportedly in talks to play her real-life musical influence Janis Joplin in a film about the aforementioned bar