On June 11th, 2002, a new competitive reality show debuted on FOX. That little show, called American Idol, has since gone on to impact popular culture and the music business in ways we could not have imagined at the turn of the century.
Chart guru, Fred Bronson, has written a piece for Billboard outlining the huge impact American Idol alums have had on the charts.
So far, there are 345 Billboard No. 1’s spread out over 29 Idol finalists and one non-finalist, William Hung. Just five Idols are responsible for almost two-thirds of those songs. Kelly Clarkson has 73 No. 1s, followed by Carrie Underwood (62), Daughtry (38), Fantasia (31) and Ruben Studdard (16).
Season 2’s Josh Gracin had the 1st #1 hit in country, followed by Carrie, Bucky Covington, Kelly and Scotty McCreery. Lauren Alaina, Danny Gokey, Casey James, Kristy Lee Cook and Michael Sarver have also appeared on the country charts.
On the R&B charts, Ruben, Fantasia, Tamyra Gray, Jordin Sparks and Jennifer Hudson have had #1s
On the Christian charts, chart toppers include Clay, Mandisa, Chris Sligh, Jason Castro, Kris Allen and Carrie.
On the dance charts, Kimberley Locke was the first Idol to reach No. 1, followed by Kelly, Jennifer, Jordin, Blake Lewis and Adam Lambert.
On the Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 charts, Kelly was the first to top charts in both formats, followed by Daughtry. Kimberley (3 holiday songs), Carrie, Elliott Yamin, David Cook, Jordin and David Archuleta. Kris and Adam have reigned on the Adult Top 40 charts.
Every single Idol winner has had at least one No. 1 on the Billboard charts, from Kelly to Phillip Phillips, winner of season 11. Phil’s coronation song, “Home” debuted on top of the Rock Digital Songs chart two weeks ago.
For more chart stats on all the American Idol winners, and more read the stat-fillled article at Billboard.biz. The mountain of numbers in the article makes it clear the indelible presence American Idol alums have had on popular music in the past decade.
