Here's a complete list of the 15 Idol contestants who have sold 500,000 or more albums. Each artist's name is followed by their total album sales tally, through this week.
3. Clay Aiken, 4,896,000. The Season 2 runner-up has sold more albums than any other male singer in Idol history. Aiken has also sold more albums than any other singer who didn't win the competition. His debut album, Measure Of A Man, opened at #1 with first-week sales of 613,000. That's still the record for the biggest weekly sales tally of any Idol contestant's album. The album included two top 10 hits: the #1 "This Is The Night" and a cover of the Carpenters' hit "Solitaire." Aiken also had a million-seller with Merry Christmas With Love, the best-selling holiday album by an Idol contestant.
The best-selling individual album by an Idol alum is Underwood's Some Hearts, which has sold 6,720,000 copies since its release in November 2005. It edges out Clarkson's Breakaway, which has sold 6,056,000 copies. (Oddly, neither album made #1 on The Billboard 200. Some Hearts peaked at #2. Breakaway reached #3). The rest of the top five in terms of total sales: Daughtry's Daughtry (4,401,000), Clay Aiken's Measure Of A Man (2,783,000) and Clarkson's Thankful (2,719,000).
Four of the 15 Idol contestants who have sold the most albums competed in Season 5. They are Taylor Hicks, that season's winner; Elliot Yamin, who came in third; Chris Daughtry, who finished fourth; and Kellie Pickler, who placed sixth. Though Hicks won the competition, all three of these other finalists have outsold him. (Hicks isn't the only Idol winner who has been humbled on the charts by a singer he beat on the show. Ruben Studdard, the Season 2 winner, has been outsold by runner-up Clay Aiken.)
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