Let’s just say that Taylor Hicks didn’t have the smoothest of launches after winning the fifth season of “American Idol.” The veteran singer was immediately signed with a label, but his self-titled debut album underperformed and only reached second place at the time. This caused the label to drop him and put the rest of his career in a big question mark.
Luckily, the “American Idol” winner decided that he was not going to give up and continued on his own way. His next album was aptly called ‘The Distance,” and ended up peaking at number 58 on the Billboard chart. Hicks enjoyed a moderate amount of success ever since, both in his singing career and in various other entertainment and artistic ventures.
Clay Aiken - $7 Million
Clay Aiken is one of the most successful "American Idol" “losers” of all time. The singer brilliantly used his exposure to launch an extremely successful musical career, while also pursuing Broadway performances and even attempting a run in United States politics. Despite starting out as a shy and geeky contestant, he’s now known as an extremely outspoken celebrity.
Aiken has had multiple albums go platinum, played in various hit TV shows such as "The Office" and "Law and Order: SVU," and almost became a North Carolina congressman. His daring ventures, entertaining personality, and huge talent helped him build a net worth of around $7 million. Aiken has since become an established public personality and definitely plans to stay that way.
Josh Gracin - $2 Million
Josh Gracin is an extremely rare case of a U.S. Marine who decided to turn into a full-time singer, and it seems that his discipline and hard work really paid off. The singer appeared on the second season of "American Idol," reaching fourth place just after mega stars Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, and Kimberley Locke. This was all he needed to launch his career.
Since his appearance on the show, Gracin has released three studio albums. The first one ended up going gold and even featured an amazing single, “Nothin’ to Lose,” which hit number one in the charts. Since then, the singer has been touring and recording music all across the United States. He also received a lot of praise for sharing his difficult struggles with depression.
Nick Fradiani - $1 Million
Nick Fradiani is one of the recent winners of "American Idol," finishing first in the 2015 season of the popular singing show. Unfortunately, his well-deserved victory did not materialize into a commercially successful musical debut. His first and only album only sold around 5,000 copies, which is extremely low considering the amount of press he received.
Regardless of his initial commercial performance, Nick Fradiani has become a millionaire at this point, and will forever be the 2015 winner of "American Idol." It’s definitely not too late for the singer to have his first hit. Sometimes it just takes a while to really hit a chord with fans. We’ll have to see how his musical career comes along, but we’re quite optimistic about it!
Katharine McPhee - $8 Million
Katharine McPhee almost finished first place in the fifth season of "American Idol," and only narrowly lost to Taylor Hicks in the finale. This didn’t stop her from pursuing a successful career in both music and entertainment. Her debut album ended up becoming a best-selling self-titled album and ironically reached second place on the Billboard charts as well.
McPhee used her newfound fame and fortune to pursue a career in acting as well. She has appeared in a few successful TV shows since, with the most notable role being Karen Cartwright on the NBC show, "Smash." The singer and actress has since married 16-time Grammy award-winning Canadian musician, David Foster, who is worth about $80 million himself.