American Idol Winners List

American Idol is a reality TV show that searches for the best solo singer all over the country. This program was aired for the first time on the 11th of June, 2002. Since then it has been in the number 1 position (according to the Nielsen ratings) for 6 consecutive years. Every year, American Idol organizes auditions across the nation, and after many close-fought difficult rounds, a winner is chosen at the end. Through telephone and SMS voting, the audience as well as the judges select the best singer among all the contestants, and that person is crowned as the American Idol. Of course, the participants have to go through some very tough times trying to be the best of the rest, and not to forget accepting failures and tolerating the 'sarcastic' comments from some of the judges.

Judges

• Randy Jackson (2002-present)
• Paula Abdul (2002-09)
• Simon Cowell (2002- 2010)
• Kara DioGuardi (2009-2010)
• Ellen DeGeneres (2010)
• Jennifer Lopez (2011-present)
• Steven Tyler (2011-present)

Till date, the program has had 10 wonderful seasons, and is considered as one of the most successful reality shows ever in television history. Now, if you are looking for the American Idol winners list, then you have come to the right page. Given below is a list of all the American Idol winners who had ranked first in all the 10 seasons.

List of American Idol Winners: Season 1-10

Whoever participates in American Idol, and more so ever the winners, get tremendous publicity. Not only the winners, even those who never make it to the top rank, get some sort publicity and have a huge number of fans following them. Besides this, some might even get an opportunity to work in some good show or company or maybe with a good music director. Given below is the list of American Idol Winners from season 1-10.

Season	Winner	Summary
Season 1 (2002)	Kelly Clarkson	Born in April 1982, Kelly Clarkson was the first person ever to win the American Idol award, in the year 2002. Nearly 50 million people had tuned in to watch this girl take the Idol crown for the first time, on 4th September, 2002. She has enjoyed a lot of success in her solo singing career since then.
Season 2 (2003)	Christopher Ruben Studdard	Born in September 1978, Ruben Studdard was nicknamed 'Velvet Teddy Bear' by the judges. He was the second one to win the American Idol in the year 2003. He defeated Clay Aiken by 134,000 votes. Ruben went ahead to make 4 studio albums after winning this award, and has sold close to 2.5 million copies till date.
Season 3 (2004)	Fantasia Monique Barrino	Hers was the third name to be added to the American Idol winners list, after she defeated Diana DeGarmo in the finals. One of the other well-known finalists was Jennifer Hudson. 'Fantasia', as she was popularly known as, went on to be nominated for 8 Grammy awards and has even acted in some movies.
Season 4 (2005)	Carrie Marie Underwood	If anyone's name deserves to be put after Kelly, then it's Carrie. From Oklahoma, Carrie won the award in the year 2005. The person who she defeated was Bo Bice. Simon Cowell had predicted that she would become the most successful Idol winner ever. After winning the award, she went ahead to win 5 Grammy awards, and has become a multi-platinum selling recording artist.
Season 5 (2006)	Taylor Reuben Hicks	Not once in the entire show was Hicks's in the bottom three zone, though on numerous occasions he received harsh comments from the judges, especially Cowell. Sometimes he wrote (and he still does) his own songs. In this season, he defeated Katharine McPhee to win the award. Also called 'Soul Patrol', later, he went on to release two albums.
Season 6 (2007)	Jordin Brianna Sparks	Born in December 1989, Jordin became to youngest Idol winner, and the 6th, in the year 2007. She won with a new record of 74 million votes. All this, after being rejected in the Los Angeles auditions, only to win later in Arizona and get into American Idol. After winning the award, she has been on tours with Alicia Keys and Jesse McCartney. On the final day, she had defeated Blake Lewis.
Season 7 (2008)	David Roland Cook	The next name to be added to the American Idol winners list was that of David Cook. He received 56% votes, and defeated an equally worthy contestant, David Archuleta. After the award, Cook had also been on The Declaration tour. He came to American Idol and won it, despite several problems in his personal life.
Season 8 (2009)	Kristopher Neil Allen	Before competing in Idol, Kris had released an album titled 'Brand New Shoes'. Most of the competition he was an underdog, but after defeating Adam Lambert, Kris became the 8th winner of American Idol. Popular as Kris Allen, he was not just into singing, but also playing the guitar and viola.
Season 9 (2010)	Leon James DeWyze	Lee DeWyze had his own band called the DeWyze Band prior to Idol, and had already 2 albums released. He was also working as a paint salesman prior to auditioning for American Idol. He won the American Idol title in 2010, when he defeated Crystal Bowersox. After winning the Idol he never looked back. He sang the national anthem for the Games 2 of the 2010 NBA Finals in June.
Season 10 (2011)	Scott Cooke McCreery	This 18-year old country singer performed popular country songs for judges Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson, and won everyone over with his charm and teenage disposition. The 2011 season finale brought in a whopping 122 million+ votes, proving how popular this reality show has become. After he won, he sang his coronation song, his original 'I Love You This Big'.
Season 11 (2012)	? ? ? ? ?	- - - - -

Now that you have the American Idol winners list, you know who won in which year. The 2012 season is scheduled to be aired from January 18th, and promises to continue for us, the fun, suspense, and entertainment that we have been experiencing over the past 10 years.