American Idol Carly Smithson Was Carly Hennessy and Already Has an Album
Posted on 15. Feb, 2008 by admin in American Idol
I smell the first scandal of the season brewing. It would seem that Top 24 finalist, Irish singer Carly Smithson already has a CD out. Really. As a matter of fact you can even buy it on iTunes! (
click here). You see Carly Smithson once went by the name Carly Hennessy. And in 2001 put out a record on the MCA label. Aren’t American Idol contestants supposed to be undiscovered?
Yahoo music reports all the details. Here are some excerpts:
Her demo landed in the hands of MCA’s president, who signed Hennessy on the spot to a contract, with the label setting her up to record a debut album. The initial results apparently pleased neither the label or the singer and former New Radical Gregg Alexander came aboard to salvage the project. The resulting album, Ultimate High, finally was issued in late 2001 and received solid reviews. Unfortunately, and despite MCA having reportedly spent in excess of two million dollars on the effort, it failed to dent the exhausted teen market with none of the singles taking off and the album selling in the hundreds as opposed to the hundreds of thousands which would have been necessary for all involved to recoup on their investment.”
“Unfortunately [after she recorded her MCA album], neither Ms. Hennessy nor MCA were happy with the results….MCA decided to rerecord Ms. Hennessy’s album from scratch…In April 2001, with the album still unfinished, MCA decided to try to get Ms. Hennessy some notice by releasing her first single, a bouncy tune called ‘I’m Gonna Blow Your Mind’….MCA spent $250,000 on a video that showed Ms. Hennessy dancing in a disco and jumping around with pals in their sleepwear. On a call-in show, Nickelodeon asked viewers to rate 30 seconds of the video, but the audience was unresponsive. The video was quickly shelved.”
So just what does all this mean? Well first you’ve got to figure that FOX knows that Carly Smithson was Carly Hennessy. They’re not stupid. I’m sure they are very aware that she had a previous singing career and recorded a record already. But isn’t that the whole point of American Idol? To get a ‘first’ contract for a new talent? So by leaving Carly in the competition, and failing to mention her previous accomplishments does it equate to some kind of ‘fixing’? Is FOX trying to assure they have real star power reach the finals?
And if FOX were to disqualify Carly Hennessy, who would they bring back from Hollywood week? Perhaps an open door to early teen favorite Josiah Leming?
Get Carly Hennessy’s album:
