r/americanidol Jul 18 '26

Album Club Selection: Jordin Sparks

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15 Upvotes

It’s like a book club, except instead of books we’re revisiting albums released by American Idol alumni, from iconic classics to deep cuts, new, old, and everything in between. 

Today’s selection is Jordin Sparks, the debut studio album by Jordin Sparks. Whether you’re revisiting it or hearing it for the first time, drop your thoughts below.

**\*

Album: Jordin Sparks

Artist: Jordin Sparks

Idol Placement: Season 6 Winner

Release Date: November 20, 2007

Singles: “Tattoo”, “No Air”, “One Step at a Time”, “This Is My Now”

**\*

Stream the Album:

YouTube

Spotify

Apple Music

**\*

Fun Facts:

  • Jordin described the album as a cross between Kelly Clarkson and Beyonce.
  • The album received mostly positive reviews, with Entertainment Weekly calling it “effervescent fun” and USA Today describing it as “ultra-catchy.” The R&B-focused magazine Vibe, on the other hand, called Sparks “Walmart-safe” and said the album “reeks of generic blandness.”
  • One of the album’s writers, Cathy Dennis, co-wrote Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” and Britney Spears’ “Toxic”.
  • The album peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 200 and is certified platinum.

**\*

We’ve posted a few questions in the comments to help spark discussion, but feel free to comment on anything you’d like.

Have an album you’d like to see featured in the Album Club? Drop us a modmail.


r/americanidol Jun 30 '26

American Idol Album Club Selection: Many Colors by Leah Marlene (and an announcement)

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6 Upvotes

It’s like a book club, except instead of books we’re revisiting albums released by American Idol alumni, from iconic classics to deep cuts, guilty pleasures, new, old, and everything in between. Each week Every now and then we’ll feature one album for the subreddit to listen to and discuss. 

Before we get to the album, a quick update: we're going to end our Retro Idol rewatch of Season 8. The number of people participating in the live chats has ranged from seven to zero. Having reached the Hollywood Week round with no comments in the chat, it feels like it’s time to put it to bed. Apologies to anyone who was enjoying this. I’m glad we tried it, but the off-season is generally very quiet around here and things are no different this year. Don’t worry, we’ll still do stuff. 

Our next Album Club selection is Many Colors by Leah Marlene. Whether you’re revisiting it or hearing it for the first time, drop your thoughts below.

**\*

Album: Many Colors

Artist: Leah Marlene

Idol Placement: 3rd Place, Season 20

Release Date: March 4, 2022

**\*

Stream the Album:

YouTube

Spotify

Apple Music

**\*

Fun Facts:

  • Leah was named a Top 50 finalist in NPR’s 2025 Tiny Desk Contest.
  • Fellow Season 20 finalist Fritz Hager performs background vocals on the track “Noise”.
  • Leah’s Idol single, “Flowers”, reached #6 on the iTunes chart.
  • Leah’s dad is a member of Canadian 80s rock band Honeymoon Suite, which has over 50 million streams on Spotify.

**\*

We’ve posted a few questions in the comments to help spark discussion, but feel free to comment on anything you’d like.

Have an album you’d like to see featured in the Album Club? Drop us a modmail.


r/americanidol 14h ago

Kayko’s Broadway Debut in Hadestown is tonight!

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27 Upvotes

Congrats to fellow redditor and Season 22’s Kayko on his Broadway debut tonight! Can’t wait to come watch you!


r/americanidol 11h ago

TOP TEN MATERIAL How long to sing for audition

4 Upvotes

Hi I don’t post much so I’m not sure how to add it, but this post should have the “TOP TEN MATERIAL” flag.

I’m auditioning thru Zoom, and I was wondering:

How much of each song do they want me to perform?

I looked at the website, but they didn’t write any time length. Do I just decide on my own which portion of a song for however long I will offer to sing?

Any other tips would be very appreciated! Thank you so much!


r/americanidol 20h ago

Papa Lionel’s Health

18 Upvotes

Apologies if this has been discussed already.
Lionel has been in the news a few times this summer requiring hospitalization after being on stage. After Dolly, we just protect him at all costs 🥺

But realistically, he is 77. I know a recent article about Idols renewal said the judges were all expected to return. However, do you think there will be changes to the lineup as a result of these developments?


r/americanidol 4d ago

Short clip of Kevin Covais performing Billy Joel's "Vienna" from last night's concert

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3 Upvotes

Kevin Covais posted this clip of him singing Billy Joel at the Long Island American Idols concert last night (second slide). Nice to hear him singing again. He sounds good!


r/americanidol 6d ago

TOP TEN MATERIAL Has anyone ever gotten a yes when they say: we’ll make our decision in the next couple of weeks

5 Upvotes

For context, I just auditioned.. I should’ve chose the part where I could belt, but I didn’t and now I’m sad bc I’m sure my producer thinks I can only sing in head voice.

She asked me a couple questions of if i sing anywhere else, and when I told her she was like “oh that’s cute”, “you’ve got something keep working at it”

That right there feels like a no already, but then at the end she was just like great job so idk.


r/americanidol 7d ago

Dolly Parton week on Season 7 (2008)

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26 Upvotes

Rest in peace, Dolly. (This YouTube channel doesn’t have the Top 9 results episode)


r/americanidol 10d ago

This duo is the sweetest 💖🎵

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

21 Upvotes

r/americanidol 12d ago

TOP TEN MATERIAL American Idol Audition

5 Upvotes

Hello!! I’m 15F and want to audition for American Idol. What are some things that can help me make the audition stand out? (I’ll be sending in a video instead of the zoom call) idk if this matters, but I’ll also be doing the second verse of “london” by Freya Skye


r/americanidol 15d ago

Most Successful ABC Idol Winners Ranked

16 Upvotes

I was curious to see which ABC idol winners were doing well and decided to rank them based on a few data points I found. I used Spotify and Instagram as a way of gauging their music release success combined with their social footprint. I weighted it using these three metrics:

  1. Number 1 Song Total Listens- This showcases the peak of the artists releases and how far of a reach they've had at one point in time.

  2. Current Monthly Listeners- This gives us a good idea of where the artist is right now with their music. It's weighted slightly less because monthly listeners can change pretty dramatically depending on recent releases, social media trends, etc.

  3. Instagram Followers- This metric was weighted last, as social media followers don't always equal music downloads but it still gives us an idea of what kind of engagement the artist is having.

After coming up with my own ranking, I asked AI to create one as well. It came up with the same order and weighted the metrics the same as I did.

With that said, here's the ranking:

🥇1. Chayce Beckham:

#1 Song- 400M

Monthly Listeners- 2.9M

Instagram- 259K

🥈2. Iam Tongi:

#1 Song- 49M

Monthly Listeners- 1.8M

Instagram- 1.3M

🥉3. Noah Thompson:

#1 Song- 42M

Monthly Listeners- 141K

Instagram- 204K

  1. Laine Hardy:

#1 Song- 11.9M

Monthly Listeners- 83K

Instagram- 486K

  1. Maddie Poppe:

#1 Song- 9.7M

Monthly Listeners- 110K

Instagram- 318K

  1. Hannah Harper:

#1 Song- 2.7M

Monthly Listeners- 186K

Instagram- 566K

  1. Jamal Roberts:

#1 Song- 2.7M

Monthly Listeners- 134K

Instagram- 543K

  1. Abi Carter:

#1 Song- 980K

Monthly Listeners- 48K

Instagram- 244K

  1. Just Sam:

#1 Song- 0 (No Song Released)

Monthly Listeners- 0

Youtube- 15K (No Instagram Account)

Let me know what you think or if I should recreate the list using more metrics or a different weighting system!


r/americanidol 21d ago

Another AIM buddy icon

13 Upvotes

r/americanidol 24d ago

Why so serious?

75 Upvotes

Really disliking the religiousness of the show. Religion is something we experience alone, not on the show. The fanbase is not all Christian, so we need to calm down. Stop forcing religion on the viewers.


r/americanidol 25d ago

David Archuleta's book

36 Upvotes

I'm just reading David Archuleta's book.

I have reached the point where he's in kindergarten and he gets upset because there's another, louder kid in his class named David who hogs all the attention.

Thank God he never had to go through anything like that again.


r/americanidol 25d ago

AIM buddy icon from 2004

13 Upvotes

r/americanidol 25d ago

Posting a clip from Spotify

1 Upvotes

I have no idea how to do this, but I would like to post Grace Kinstler’s new song. Can anyone provide some instructions. Thanks!


r/americanidol 29d ago

What an interesting lineup!

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16 Upvotes

r/americanidol Aug 02 '26

TOP TEN MATERIAL American Idol Audition Process

11 Upvotes

My teenage daughter was scouted by a senior producer. She went through multiple rounds of auditions and coaching sessions with him and on Friday sang for the executive producer. They told her she did great and they’d be reaching out in a few weeks. Wondering if she would have heard during that audition if she was moving on to sing for the judges or if it is common to wait to hear about the next steps?


r/americanidol Jul 31 '26

You know what I miss?

19 Upvotes

Bring back the cheesy coronation singles! That's what Idol was all about back in the day. The trite, but uplifting lyrics. The soft, but inspiring instrumentation that gradually builds up to the powerful key change with sparks and confetti falling. Making both finalists sing the same song, even if it's obviously tailored to one of them over the other (see: A Moment Like This, This Is My Now). I miss those days, man.


r/americanidol Jul 29 '26

PARTY WITH A HARDY Kayko is heading to Broadway

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56 Upvotes

r/americanidol Jul 23 '26

Pia Toscano on Instagram: "Carmen & I are overjoyed to finally share that we’re expecting our precious baby girl this December. Our hearts are so full of gratitude for this answered prayer, and we can’t wait to welcome her into our family. 🙏💕 📷: @jonvolk"

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8 Upvotes

r/americanidol Jul 20 '26

What pop culture trends can you argue were directly originated or influenced by American Idol?

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15 Upvotes

Was just perusing the orange robot app and found this post from r/Decadeology. I wanted to bring discussion here to us Idoloonies and get more in the weeds. As an example, Idol gave us everyday people multiple avenues of music discovery with its peak viewership occurring in the transition between physical and digital/streaming. The show gave us a hand in promoting new artists we like while at the same time lending our ears to some of their inclinations not so mainstream.


r/americanidol Jul 19 '26

TOP TEN MATERIAL DESPERATELY NEED ADVICE

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0 Upvotes

r/americanidol Jul 16 '26

American idol contestants who would be good on glee

6 Upvotes
  1. Kelly Clarkson

  2. Ruben Studdard

  3. Clay Aiken

  4. Fantasia Barrino

  5. Vonzell Solomon

  6. Bo Bice

  7. Carrie Underwood

  8. Chris Daughtry

  9. Elliott Yamin

  10. Katherine Mcphee

  11. Jordin Sparks

  12. David Cook

  13. David Archuleta

  14. Kris Allen

  15. Phillip Phillips

  16. Candice Glover


r/americanidol Jul 12 '26

Who from this past season have you been following since the show ended?

16 Upvotes

I’ve really only been keeping up with Brooks and Rae. Loved them both individually (especially Rae) and as a couple, so I’ve been really interested to see what they do next professionally.

Lately it’s been pretty quiet. They do the occasional live streams, but seem to have pulled back a lot on posting in general and posting each other, although from everything I’ve seen they still appear to be together.

What contestants are you still following? Who do you think is most likely to really take off career-wise over the next year or two?

I miss the weekly chats with yall 🥺❤️