Idol Update!

A little bit of scoop here about how our favorite ex American Idol contestants are doing. For a while I’ve been wondering how sales of each contestants singles have done sales wise (on iTunes and on American Idol.com). They were finally nice enough to release the numbers to sound scan, which were posted over on the Idol Chatter blog. Here’s an overview of how the contestants did compared to each other (because the competition NEVER ends):

Top Non Final 2 Singles

1. Gina – “I’ll Stand by You” (6,000)
2. Phil – “Blaze of Glory” – (5,700)
3. Lakisha – “This Ain’t a Love Song” (3,500)
4. Melinda – “Sway” (2,900)
5. Melinda – “There Will Come a Day” (2,700)
6. Gina – “Paint It Black” (2,600)
7. Chris R. – “Wanted Dead or Alive” (2,600)
8. Melinda – “Trouble Is a Woman” (2,500)
9. Melinda – “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” (2,300)
10. Chris R. – “Mayberry” (2,200)

I’m leaving out Blake & Jordin, because obviously all of their singles sold MUCH more. I’m surprised/impressed at how well Gina’s single did….she was ninth place, that’s amazing! This isn’t very accurate for Melinda though, because the numbers for some of her top songs weren’t released.

Overall Single Sales

Blake – 382,000
Jordin – 344,000
Melinda – 18,000
Gina – 11,000
Chris R. – 10,200
Phil – 10,200
Lakisha – 9,700
Sanjaya – 4,800
Haley – 2,600
Chris S. – 2,500
Stephanie – 900
Brandon – 500

These are the sales of all the singles for each contestant combined (save a few that weren’t released). Once again…Gina passed up a bunch of people who outranked her. I had no clue she was so popular! And I think we have a Ruben/Clay situation going on here with our top 2! Also, I think this proves that Sanjaya’s popularity nothing more than hype. But we already knew that, didn’t we?

If you’re really interested, be sure the read the article over at USAToday; they break down the sales of each single and averages for each of the contestants.

Other blurbs…

Carrie Underwood’s sophomore CD drops the day before Halloween, and she’s done a lot of writing for her follow up.

Billboard magazine says Jordin has been signed to Arista, even though there hasn’t been an official press release like they usually do. She’s finished one song for the album.

There’s a reason why Blake doesn’t have a label yet….he either refused to sign with Clive or wasn’t offered a deal (neither has EVER happened for a runner up). In a recent track, one of his friends said “BLAKE isn’t signed yet!! Its all going to be a bidding war once the album is finished. After Blake produces this album, any label would be RETARDED for not signing him. Its just going to be a matter of will pay out the most!!” This is groundreaking, y’all.

AND in addition to that, here’s what he says about the six tracks he’s laid down already, “I’ve got a track that’s very Erasure-sounding, a track that’s Sting-meets-Neverending Story and a track that’s very electro-poppy Depeche Mode. It’s all over the map.” Cool.

There hasn’t been any word on anyone else getting signed.

By the way, my concert is coming up this weekend! Expect a full report!

Sources: MJ’s Blog, Billboard Magazine, IDF