American Idol: The Singles

When Kelly, Clay, and Ruben participated in American Idol, the popularity of downloading songs was only beginning; physical singles were still on the market. In fact, Clay sold over 900,000 of "This is the Night/Bridge Over Troubled Water. These days most artists outside of the Idol winner and runner-up don't even release physical singles, instead relying on downloads from Internet download services such as i-Tunes, Rhapsody etc. for sales.

Ken Barnes of USA Today has compiled a list of accumulated downloads of the AI debut singles along with the physical sales in his Idol Chatter Blog.
No surprise that Clay leads the pack with his phenomenal single sales, but he has rather few downloads. Kelly fared better in the downloads for "A Moment Like This" due to her success with her Breakaway album. No doubt, many new fans checked out her earlier music.

Here are the stats compiled from SoundScan numbers:
ps (physical sales) +d (downloads) =Total Sales

1. Clay Aiken-"This Is the Night"/"Bridge Over Troubled Water"
960,000 ps +52,000 d = 1.01 million

2. Kelly Clarkson-"A Moment Like This"/"Before Your Love"
626,000 ps + 188,000= 814,000

3. Ruben Studdard- "Superstar"/"Flying Without Wings"
747,000ps + 32,000d= 759,000

4. Carrie Underwood-"Inside Your Heaven"/"Independence Day"
455,000ps + 286,000d = 741,000

5. Taylor Hicks*- "Do I Make You Proud"/"Takin' It To The Streets"
417,000ps + 183,000d= 600,000

6. Fantasia-"I Believe"/"Summertime"/"Chain of Fools"
405,000ps + 96,000d= 501,000

7. Bo Bice="Inside Your Heaven"/"Vehicle"
346,000 ps + 80,000d=426,000

8. Diana DeGarmo-"Dreams"/"Don't Cry Out Loud"/"I Believe"
201,000ps + 36,000 d= 237,000

9. Katharine McPhee*-"My Destiny"/"Somewhere Over the Rainbow "
117,000ps + 114,000d= 231,000

*Katharine and Taylor are still in an active sales cycle.


Download statistics for individual songs from the American Idol Season 5 compilation album along with the two coronation songs are as follows:

1 Taylor Hicks-"Do I Make You Proud" : 114,000
2 Chris Daughtry-"Wanted Dead or Alive": 94,000
3 Taylor Hicks-"Takin' It to the Streets' : 69,000
4 Katharine McPhee-"S. Over the Rainbow" : 67,000
5 Katharine McPhee-"My Destiny" : 47,000
6 Elliott Yamin-"Moody's Mood for Love" : 23,000
7 Katharine McPhee-"Think" : 21,000
8 Ace Young-"Father Figure" : 11,000
9 Paris Bennet-"Midnight Train to Georgia" : 9,100
10 Kellie Pickler-"Walkin' After Midnight" : 8,400
11 Mandisa-"I'm Every Woman": 7,400
12 Melissa McGhee-"What About Love" : 6,400
13 Bucky Covington-"Superstition" : 4,000
14 Lisa Tucker-"Signed Sealed Delivered" : 3,700
15 Kevin Corvais-"When I Fall in Love" : 2,600



Since this is a Clay Aiken fan blog, here are two videos of Clay singing the songs on his single.



"This Is The Night" from the 2003 appearance on The View



"Bridge Over Troubled Water" from the AI Final 2




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