Diana Nicole DeGarmo (born June 16, 1987 in Birmingham, Alabama) is an American singer and Broadway actress. She was the second place finalist on the third season of the reality/talent-search television series American Idol, losing by a margin of 1% out of 65 million votes.[1] At 16, DeGarmo was the second youngest contestant among the third season's set of finalists; she was a junior at Snellville's Shiloh High School.

Diana is currently starring in the eight-time Tony Award-winning musical Hairspray in New York City.

Biography

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, DeGarmo has been singing publicly from a young age, including at the 1997 Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards, and in stage productions of Annie and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in Atlanta. As a third grade student, she was a Coca-Cola Kid during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, performing three shows a day. The next year, she sang at Opryland USA during the Christmas holiday season. In 2002, she was named Miss Teen Georgia and was a finalist on the NBC talent search program America's Most Talented Kid.

She performed on the “American Idols Live” tour with the other season 3 Idol finalists during the summer of 2004. She toured independently in 2005 in support of Blue Skies.

She appeared as a guest on FOX News's The O'Reilly Factor on 27 November 2006 to discuss a stalking and identity theft incident.

Musical Theatre

In November of 2005, DeGarmo appeared as Maria in the American Musical Theatre of San Jose production of West Side Story.

On February 7, 2006, she made her Broadway debut as "Penny Pingleton" in the musical Hairspray at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York City to rave reviews. She starred in the show until May 21, 2006. She was later asked to rejoin the cast, reprising the role of Penny; she is contracted to be in Hairspray from September 8, 2006, through February 11, 2007.

DeGarmo was cast in the lead role of "Brooklyn" in Brooklyn, The Musical, on tour over the summer of 2006. The touring musical also starred Melba Moore and Cleavant Derricks. She received rave reviews.^{[citation�needed]}

DeGarmo was also performing in a musical concert, "In Your Dreams," in early October 2006 in a musical said to have a similar plot to High School Musical. DeGarmo performed alongside some of her Hairspray co-stars, and other Broadway stars as well.

Music

DeGarmo released a single, "Dreams," on June 29, 2004. It includes 2 other songs: her version of "I Believe" cowritten by the former Idol contestant Tamyra Gray and a remake of Melissa Manchester's "Don't Cry Out Loud."

DeGarmo's debut album, titled Blue Skies, was released on December 7th, 2004, to opening week sales of 47,000. The album came in at #52 in the Billboard chart. As of November 2006, sales are at 165,000 copies. Her single "Emotional" peaked at #54 on the Mediabase Pop Chart.

Blue Skies

thumbimage" />

Diana DeGarmo's debut album, "Blue Skies"

Dreams

Diana DeGarmo's single, "Dreams"

DeGarmo had a song, "Reaching for Heaven" on the soundtrack for the movie "Ice Princess." She also had a song on The Fairly Odd Parents album Give Me the Wand, which is targeted for release this summer.

Second album

DeGarmo's second effort is currently in progress. DeGarmo has said that she was to begin recording her new album in the summer of 2005, but then got sidetracked with her role on West Side Story; she has finally begun recording, and will continue during her time on "Hairspray" in New York and during the "Brooklyn: The Musical" national tour this summer.

DeGarmo has stated in recent interviews that her new album is taking a new direction. She has said it will be "a little more funk, a little more dance, a little more R&B" than her first album. She has also stated that lyrically, the material would be both personal and general. DeGarmo has not said who is working on her new record but rapper RealLifeCynic (from Miami) has mentioned on his MySpace page that he is working with DeGarmo. It was announced in summer of 2006 that Diana DeGarmo has a new management company, Mauldin Brand Agency.

Awards and charts

DeGarmo's first single, "Dreams", debuted at #2 in record sales and went #1 on the Billboard US Singles Sales Chart.

On September 17th, 2005, DeGarmo received the Horizon Award at the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame Awards ceremony. The award recognizes Georgia artists on the path to successful and lengthy careers.

Albums

• Blue Skies (2004) #52 US (RCA)

Singles

• Dreams (2004) #1 (Sales Chart) #14 (Hot 100)
• Emotional (2004)

Trivia

DeGarmo had a voice in the Fairly OddParents special Fairy Idol. She sang a song with Cosmo and Norm the Genie called "Gimme the Wand", where Norm sings about wanting the "power of a genie but the freedom of a fairy/fairy godparent". Cosmo magically obtained DeGarmo's voice for the performance.

The song Boy Like You, included in her album Blue Skies, was performed in Spanish by the Mexican pop band Nikki Clan under the name No me digas que no (Don't tell me that no).

DeGarmo sang "God Bless America" at a New York Mets playoff game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Shea Stadium on October 5, 2006. National League Division Series Game 2.

On November 23rd 2006 DeGarmo appears in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the King Tutenstein float performing the original song The Pharaoh Strut.

References

• 'I Made It' Declares Tearful 'Idol' Winner Fantasia Barrino by Corey Moss, MTV, May 2004

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Diana DeGarmo

• Diana's Official Dream Team
• Mauldin Brand Agency
• Hairspray Official Broadway Website
• Diana DeGarmo Lyrics

es:Diana DeGarmo fi:Diana DeGarmo tl:Diana DeGarmo

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia