Idol Bits and Pieces: Matt Giraud, Michael Sarver, David Archuleta and More
Y’all know Michael Sarver got signed. His new single, “You Are” debuted on Ryan Seacrest’s blog yesterday. Check out the pretty country ballad HERE. The single, plus a bonus track, “Cinderella Girl” will be available digitally on Tuesday, December 8.
Matt Giraud visited a middle school in Michigan yesterday to perform for the students. He told a fan via twitter that he sang one of his new songs called “4 AM” written with JT Harding, who co-wrote “Smile” for Uncle Kracker. Check out a photo of Matt with the kids HERE.
Kris Allen played the Jingle Ball in Chicago last night, and there are tons and tons of tweets from fans who where there HERE. Kris was sitting in the audience enjoying the other acts like the Fray and Colbie Caillat, much to the delight of his fans in the audience! I’ll be at the concert in Worcester, MA on Monday. Yay me!
David Archuleta just launched a new iPhone app that allows fans to sing along to his songs, and then compare how well they did with other fans. The app contains five songs from his new Christmas from the Heart CD. It’s holiday themed! More info at Idol Chatter HERE.
Check out David’s latest video blog HERE. I cracked up when he turned around his laptop to show the scenery outside his tour bus window. Archie is too funny. And kind.Tweeters report that he dropped by an assisted living facility in Idaho to entertain the residents. Update: “I”ll Be Home For Christmas”
It happened quietly last week, but Carrie Underwood surpassed Kelly Clarkson as the highest selling Idol domestically. World Wide? Kelly is still #1. The Top 5 Idol sellers in the US are:
- Carrie Underwood – 10,539,000
- Kelly Clarkson – 10,428,000
- Daughtry – 5,356,000
- Clay Aiken – 4,910,000
- Ruben Studdard – 2,532,000
Ruben gets no respect these days, but he sold a boatload of records…
Posted in American Idol | 
Tags: Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, Daughtry, David Archuleta, Kelly Clarkson, Kris Allen, Matt Giraud, Michael Sarver, Ruben Studdard, Ryan Seacrest
68 Responses to “Idol Bits and Pieces: Matt Giraud, Michael Sarver, David Archuleta and More”
Another video from Chicago last night — Alright with Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxA-Tfg2GDI
Haha, okay if you say so.
I don’t know why this keeps coming up, but Country artists are not the only artists that sell cds, Kelly had that monster pop cd, and if you look at the top ten albums every week very few of them are ever country. I think this effort to try and discredit Carrie’s success because of her genre is pretty lame.
Okey, I found this article on About.com.
Kelly – 23 million worldwide
Carrie – 14 million worldwide
According to Wikipedia, Carrie sold 300-400 thousand copies of Some Hearts in Canada (3x platinum). I’m sure she sold some more outside of USA and Canada, but probably not millions. Country is not that popular outside of North America.
Carrie sold 3 million copies of Carnival Ride in USA. I doubt that CR was internationally more successful than SH.
And Kelly is planning to release her 5th album next year? Carrie won’t beat her in worldwide sales anytime soon.
HAHA. The best joke I’ve heard in years!
Well she did, because she has sold over 9 million copies of Some Hearts worldwide and only 6.8 million of that was in the united states.
Yes she is but Kelly has yet to have an album be as big as her Break Away album, while Carrie keeps going platinum several times over.
Sorry, can’t find any certification of this. Find 6.8 Us, 400,000 Canada and no other verification of any albums sold.
I don’t think anyone is holding Carrie’s genre against her. She sells like a mad women in Country Music. But unlike some Country “stars” before her she has “yet” to crossover into mainstream music. When she can sell like Shania and has major success outside of her genre then she can wear the “crown”. Shania has sold over 65 million albums worldwide to date.
Related to the above Matt story, I enjoyed this Twitter exchange between him and one of his co-writers on “I Miss You Tonight” Victoria Shaw.
victoriashawcom:
Ur only supposed to sing our song!RT @ImMattGiraud What did you sing for them??… I sang one of my new songs called 4 AM
ImMattGiraud:
@victoriashawcom I sang “I Miss You Tonight” last night at my Xmas party and EVERYONE sang along. It was like a choir. Pretty cool to see!
victoriashawcom:
It’s a dang hit boy!RT@ImMattGiraud: I sang “I Miss You Tonight” last night at my Xmas party and EVERYONE sang along. It was like a choir.
I don’t want to take away from those idols who sold all those albums, but it has steadily become a very different world in the past few years in regards to amounts of albums sold compared to when they released albums. It would be nice to compare apples to apples with the newer idols. Of course, since all of those listed have been out much longer, it is almost impossible to compare at this point.
I am a diehard, longtime Kelly Clarkson fan but Carrie deserves congratulations. She is incredibly successful and if her album sales have surpassed Kelly’s here in the US then so be it. It doesn’t diminish Kelly’s accomplishments one bit. Carrie’s a juggernaut and deserves her success.
hehe archie sang Feliz Navidad last night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjT1rlvhoRA
It’s funny when a pop artist like Kelly is considered OMG! Sucessful! after selling 20 million cds (nothing against her, she’s me 2nd favourite idol) but Carrie has to sell 65 million just to wear the “crown”. That’s ridiculous, who would sell that much these days? Even Lady Gaga, or Taylor Swift couldn’t.
I liked Michael Sarver’s song – to me it’s sounds like it could succeed on country radio.
I think the numbers are pitching Kelly vs. Carrie fans into a fan war!
Oh, Idol, what you do to us! Only in an Idol blog would people debate the records of two artists whose main connection is past wins on a show which happened several years apart. There are hundreds of other past Idol contestants, winners or not (including my favorite runner-up) who would count themselves lucky to do as well as either of these women.
Frog! I hope David sings Feliz Navidad again on Tuesday for my show! Did he leave anything out or is this a bonus song?
Omigosh! Feliz Navidad! I absolutely love that song. The lyrics are ultra simplistic, but it always makes me happy to sing along with it on the radio. Way to go David! Great choice of song to mix things up.
Kelly Clarkson IMO needs to change her image. She has let herself go is a big reason for her not selling as much. Back in her Breakaway days she looked like a hot pop star. You can be overweight in country, jazz, opera, musical theatre but a pop star NO. IMO nothing IMO will ever top Breakaway. During the Breakaway years Kelly was the hottest thing in music an she proved herself outside of Idol. Breakaway hands down the best album ever by an Idol. It sold 13 million worldwide. Kelly made 40 million dollars in one year for Breakaway. I like Carrie alot and think she is talented. One thing that bugs me though about Carrie she does not take risks. Her biggest criticism comes from her repeating herself over and over again. Play On IMO is better then CR but she needs to be riskier and kick it up a notch. Carrie/Kelly IMO are the golden Idol standard. Kelly has done really really well with Already Gone. It’s a gorgeous song and it could spur another single on All I Ever Wanted.
There is a minor correction to the info in your article.
At the annual Gala in Raleigh last October, held for Clay Aiken’s charity The National Inclusion Project, he showed his gathered fans a beautiful new award sent recently to him by RCA. It contained the mounting of each of his four albums, and was engraved in honor of his sales reaching 6,000,000 for those albums.
It puts him back over Daughtry for the moment, and he is currently in Germany recording tracks for his next album, for release early next year.
It is always interesting and fun to watch all the Idols and their sales.