How have the winners of previous editions of American Idol fared?

American Idol has been bringing budding singers looking to make it big into livingrooms across the country since it first debuted on Fox in 2002. Over more than 20 seasons it has launched the careers of numerous contestants.

While winning the show can be a tremendous boost to success on the national stage, just appearing on the program can put wind beneath the wings of the up-and-coming stars to achieve mega-stardom.

The most successful American Idol contestants

One of the artists who has attained the most success from winning American Idol is Kelly Clarkson. She became the first-ever winner in 2002 and over the last two decades she’s sold more than 25 million albums and hosts her own talk show, ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’. She’s won numerous awards for her music and show and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Carrie Underwood also tops the list of American Idol winners that have been launched to mega-stardom. The Season 4 winner has put out nine studio albums to date and sold 70 million records worldwide. She is also the most-nominated and most-winning Idol at the Grammy’s with 16 and 8 respectively. That’s in addition to her 12 Billboard Music Awards and 17 American Music Awards making her the highest-certified female country artist of all time.

USA Today Entertainment ranked the all the American Idol winners so far according to their sheer talent and post-win careers. Here are the top ten of the first 21 seasons:

Artists don’t need to win American Idol to have successful careers

Fans of Jennifer Hudson will probably tell you it was an absolute travesty that she came in seventh place in the season 3 competition. However, she went on to become the first Idol alum and the youngest woman in history to reach EGOT status, winning all four of the major American entertainment awards, in 2022.

Adam Lambert lost to Kris Allen in season 8 in what many considered an upset. However, his runner-up status didn’t stop him with his first album earning a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. He went on to release four more albums and joined Queen for several tours between 2014 and 2023.

Katharine McPhee is ranked fifth in PureWow’s top 25 most successful ‘American Idol’ contestants. She was runner-up in season 5 to Taylor Hicks, who went on to a successful career of his own.

Despite not winning, she parlayed her appearance on the show into a successful music and acting career. McPhee is best known for playing Karen Cartwright the leading role in NBC’s ‘Smash’. She has also appeared on Broadway in the musical ‘Waitress’.