American Idol 1 (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The first season of American Idol premiered on June 11, 2002 and continued until September 4, 2002. It was won by Kelly Clarkson. This season was co-hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman, who left the show after one season.

Auditions

Auditions were held in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, and Seattle in the spring of 2002.

Semi-finals

The 30 semi-finalists were:

• Christopher Aaron

1. Still In Love With You
2. On Bended Knee (Boyz II Men, 1994)

• Alexandra Bachelier

1. Save the Best For Last (Vanessa Williams, 1992)

• Christopher Badano

1. I Swear (All-4-One, 1994)

• Natalie Burge

1. Crazy (Patsy Cline)

• Khaleef R. Chiles

1. My Cherie Amour (Stevie Wonder)

• Christina Christian
• Kelly Clarkson

1. Respect

• EJay Day
• Rodesia Eaves

1. Daydream Believer (The Monkees)

• Brad Estrin

1. Just Once (James Ingram)

• A.J. Gil
• Kelli Glover

1. I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton, 1973; Whitney Houston, 1992)
2. How Am I Supposed To Live Without You (Laura Branigan, 1983; Michael Bolton, 1989)

• Tamyra Gray
• Justin Guarini
• RJ Helton
• Adriel Herrera

1. I'll Be (Edwin McCain, 1998)

• Kristin Holt

1. Fallin' (Alicia Keys, 2001)

• Jamar Kane

1. Careless Whisper (Wham!, 1985)

• Alexis Stone Lopez

1. I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor, 1979)
2. Saving All My Love For You (Whitney Houston, 1985)

• Jazmin Lowery

1. You Put a Move On My Heart

• Nikki McKibbin
• Angela J. Peel

1. Run to You (Whitney Houston)
2. As We Lay

• Tanesha Ross

1. Until You Come Back to Me, That's What I'm Gonna Do

• Melanie Sanders

1. And I Am Telling You, I'm Not Going (Jennifer Holliday)

• Mark Scott (singer)

1. My Girl (The Temptations)

• Gil Sinuet

1. Ribbon In the Sky" (Stevie Wonder)

• Ryan Starr
• Tenia Taylor

1. "Greatest Love of All" (Whitney Houston, 1985)

• Jim Verraros
• Justinn Waddell

1. When a Man Loves a Woman (Percy Sledge, 1966)

Finals

In the first season the show was co-hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman. Kelly Clarkson won, with Justin Guarini coming in second. A television special from Las Vegas starring the top thirty-two finalists aired after the show, a forty city tour with the top ten followed, as did the box office bomb titled From Justin to Kelly. Since winning, Clarkson has gone on to a successful recording career, including multiple-platinum albums, a number of Top 10 hit singles and on to win 2 Grammy awards.

Date	Theme	Bottom Three (two eliminated)
July 17	Motown	EJay Day	Jim Verraros	Nikki McKibbin
		Bottom Three
July 24	1960s	A.J. Gil	Ryan Starr	Christina Christian
July 31	1970s	Ryan Starr (2)	Justin Guarini	Nikki McKibbin (2)
August 7	Big band	Christina Christian (2)	RJ Helton	Nikki McKibbin (3)
		Bottom Two
August 14	Love songs	RJ Helton (2)	Nikki McKibbin (4)
August 21	1980s & 1990s	Tamyra Gray	Nikki McKibbin (5)
August 28	Judge's Pick	Nikki McKibbin (6)
September 4		Justin Guarini (2)	Kelly Clarkson

Controversy

• Christina Christian was not present during the night of her elimination after being hospitalized from exhaustion. Her elimination was shocking to many, especially Simon Cowell. Some people think that she forfeited the competition because of her hospitalization. One rumor said that she earlier committed unacceptable behavior during the finals so some people say that the show gave fake results.

• Jim Verraros, the first and so far only openly gay finalist was told to remove all gay comments from the show. This, of course, caused much controversy.

• In November 2006, RJ Helton admitted that he was gay, making him the third openly gay finalist (Second being Anwar Robinson).

• There is a rumor that semi-finalist Adriel Herrera was invited to perform at the wild card show but turned down the offer for no apparent reason.

Releases

Major releases

• American Idol: Greatest Moments (Compilation - CD)
• "A Moment Like This" (Kelly Clarkson - single)
• Thankful (Kelly Clarkson - CD)
• Justin Guarini (Justin Guarini - CD)
• "Miss Independent" (Kelly Clarkson - single)
• "Low" (Kelly Clarkson - single)
• "The Trouble with Love Is" (Kelly Clarkson - single)
• "Breakaway" (Kelly Clarkson - single)
• The Dreamer (Tamyra Gray - CD)
• "Since U Been Gone" (Kelly Clarkson - single)
• Breakaway (Kelly Clarkson - CD)
• "Behind These Hazel Eyes" (Kelly Clarkson - single)
• "Because of You" (Kelly Clarkson - single)
• "Walk Away" (Kelly Clarkson - single)

Minor or independent releases

(This list does not include pre-Idol releases)

• Unsaid and Understood (Jim Verraros, 2003)
• Real Life (RJ Helton, 2004)
• "My Religion" (Ryan Starr, Single 2004)
• Human Again (Adriel Herrera)
• Rollercoaster (Jim Verraros, 2005)
• Stranger Things Have Happened (Justin Guarini, 2005)
• "To Be With You" (Nikki McKibbin, Single 2006)
• "The Lie" (Nikki McKibbin, Single 2006)
• Voyces United for UNHCR (Brad Estrin, 2006)

Source: Idolsmusic.com

See also

• American Idol
• List of American Idol contestants

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