Chris Daughtry Signs Record Deal

By: Shannon Gossage

Daughtry was this season’s fourth runner-up. Daughtry, 26, signed a deal with RCA Records head honcho Clive Davis and 19 Recordings Unlimited, Idol creator Simon Fuller’s label. He is slated to release an album later this year. He has reportedly already been hard at work. He is set to form a band and reportedly "has already begun to work with A-list collaborators" writing and recording new material. He is currently being featured on the American Idol: Season Five compilation CD singing his version of the Bon Jovi hit "Wanted Dead or Alive." His cover debuted at number 43 on the Hot 100 and was number 16 on Billboard’s Hot Digital Tracks.

When Daughtry was eliminated from the Idol competition members of the band Fuel offered him a spot in their band as the lead singer to replace Brett Scallions who quit the band earlier this year. Daughtry said at the time, "They’re good friends of mine, and right now I’m just thinking everything through and making sure that I make the right decision for me and my family. Those things take time." He eventually decided to pass on the offer saying he was "going to be doing my own thing."

The North Carolina native is married and raising two kids with his wife Deanna. His work on the American Idols Live! tour has earned him a lot of praise and he has been labeled "genuinely talented" and of having a "signature combination of fire and feeling." Daughtry was shocked, along with half of America, when he was eliminated from the competition. He said at the time, "It’s weird because you have all these people telling you for weeks now, ‘Oh man you’re gonna win this thing. You’re gonna win this thing.’ And when you have so many people telling you that you assume this is what America wants." Well, he may not have won American Idol but he has certainly proven his talent and is set to explode on the charts!