American Idol: Your Ticket to Stardom?

American Idol started out in 2002. It was created by Simon Fuller and hosted by Ryan Seacrest. The show's purpose was to let the viewers vote on who was the best singer out of thousands that were competing on the show. Judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson would say what they thought of their performances but ultimately America had the last say. And so far America has been doing a great job. Don't think so? Keep reading.

Kelly Clarkson our first American Idol, won a grammy in 2004, and had sold more than 8,4 million copies of her album last year. Her third album was released June 2007 and it had differed from the other two. It had shown Kelly's true music tastes because all the songs were her own creations, and even though many people gave it mixed reviews it still did well mainly I believe, because of her success with the first two albums and the fact that Kelly Clarkson is a great singer.

Clay Aiken another American Idol Season 2, sold more than 4,78 million albums last year and has been on Broadway in the production Monty Python's SPAMALOT since Jan.18. He had been the runner up in American Idol Season 2. He has had two singles and three albums already and with this Broadway production Clay Aiken's future looks brighter than ever.

Carrie Underwood our Season 4 American Idol, had more than 5.62 million albums last year. Her debut album sold over 8 million copies worldwide in 2006, and was the best-selling album in all genres for the year. She did more in that year than Kelly Clarkson has done in her career and her song "Before He Cheats" became so popular that people were probably boosting the sales of the louiseville bats as well. She has also been given two Grammys, and she has been listed in Forbes The 20 Top Earning Young Superstars with an estimated $7 million to her name. All in all I say she is doing pretty well and have no doubt that she will do even better.

Chris Daughtry made it to the top 12 in Season 5 and then was voted off, was it a mistake? Maybe. Did it affect him? No way. Daughtry and his band had sold more than 3.2 million copies in the US. And his self-titled album, Daughtry, became the top selling album twice. When it first came out and when it came out 2 in Nov. 2006 which sold 300,000 more copies in the first week alone. Even his song "Home" is used in American Idol when the people are eliminated. So even though he was voted off as the next American Idol, he still became famous and he continues to make music that everyone wants to hear over and over.

Jordin Sparks the latest American Idol winner, and the youngest at only 17, has already become a great success. This was her second try and she proved to everyone that she was not about to give up. She re-auditioned in Arizona where she blew everyone away with her version of Celine Dion's Because You Love Me. And now her album has sold many copies, her number one song Tattoo had become very popular and her No Air song duet with Chris Brown is going the same way too. I believe that if she is able to continue, she will be walking the same line that Carrie Underwood did.

Fantasia Barrino became the American Idol in Season 4 and soon after was signed with BMG Records. Her debut album "I believe" stood on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No.1 for 11 weeks in a row. The first ever by a debut album. She was also nominated for more than 20 awards in the entertainment business and has taken home Outstanding Female Artist at the NAACP Image Awards, Top-Selling R&B/HipHop SIngle of the year and Top-Selling Single of the Year at the Billboard Music Awards.

Fantasia set a record in 2004 when her other singles also stood at No. 1 for 10 and 13 weeks each and was the most played singer in a week on an Adult record in history. Her record continued in 2005 when her other songs also made it to the top of the charts but this time instead of one song, she had two and three songs on the charts. She also wrote a memoir of her life called Life is Not a Fairytale, which Lifetime later made into a movie in which she starred as herself. The movie became the second most watched movie in Lifetime history, with 19 million viewers.

Fantasia has worked with Missy Elliot and Kanye West and has appeared on Jay Leno. She sang with Patti Labelle and Yolanda Adams for their version of Stevie Wonder's "I wish". She continues her successful career and I have no doubt that she will be a huge star in the many years to come, because this is only the beginning for her.

There are many others, but these are the ones that have been the most popular and successful. So if you have what it takes in the singing department, take your chances and go to the auditions. Even though you will be with thousands of people going for the same thing, even if you make it to the top 12, you can still become successful if you have confidence in yourself and then once you are a star, you can tell the world how you did it.