Diana DeGarmo

Country, Pop, American Idol Finalists & Winners, Reality TV Star, Lecturers & Speakers, Broadway Performer, Female, 2000s, 2010s

Runner Up - American Idol Season 3

At the age of sixteen, DeGarmo was thrust into the media spotlight as the Season 3 runner-up on American Idol. Over sixty-five million votes were cast during the finale and DeGarmo narrowly lost by only 2%. She signed with RCA and her album “Blue Skies” debuted December 7, 2004. Despite selling 47,000 copies in its first week, DeGarmo admits the album didn’t reflect her as an artist. The album went on to sell an impressive 200,000 copies, but RCA and DeGarmo eventually parted ways.

Over the next few years, DeGarmo went on a journey of self-discovery. She traded her tween pop/rock persona for an impressive Broadway debut as the nerdy Penny Pingleton in Tony Award winning HAIRSPRAY. A national tour of BROOKLYN: THE MUSICAL shortly followed and then DeGarmo again reprised her role of Penny in HAIRSPRAY. In 2007, DeGarmo filmed CMT’s Gone Country, and for the first time she found a familiar sound that resonated from within: DeGarmo felt at home.

With an amazing range and vocal prowess far beyond her years, Diana DeGarmo gained overnight fame as a runner-up on the third season of television's No. 1 series, 'American Idol.' Such high-profile exposure opened the door for DeGarmo's first radio single 'Dreams,' from her full-length RCA label debut Blue Skies, which claimed the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart. DeGarmo has also conquered the Great White Way, starring as Penny Pingleton in Broadway’s "Hairspray" and as Brooklyn in the first national tour of "Brooklyn: The Musical." She also starred as Dorothy in the first national tour of "Oz," and in "Back to Bacharach and David" at the Music Box at Fonda in Los Angeles. The talented singer's television credits include ABC TV's "Walt Disney World Christmas Parade," as well as NBC-TV's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," and CMT's reality series "Gone Country." DeGarmo is also a proud supporter of our American Troops, touring overseas with the USO and 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace.