Brooke White released an album in 2006 titled Songs from the Attic on independent label New Millenium Records Group (yes, you can buy it on Amazon). She also released a video for the single “Free”, off Songs from the Attic.

Syesha Mercado won “Best Supporting Actress” at the 2005 Florida Theatre Conference and the 2006 South Eastern Theatre Conference for her role as the Sour Kangaroo (your guess is as good as mine!) in Seussical the Musical.

David Cook released an independent album in 2006 titled Analog Heart. The album was chosen as the fourth-best CD released in 2006 by website Music Equals Life. He also won the Urban Tulsa Weekly's "Absolute Best of Tulsa" award for "Best Locally Produced, Independent Album" in 2007.

We all know that Carly Smithson released an album titled Ultimate High with the now-defunct MCA label, which sold barely 400 copies in the first three months after release (up until a few weeks ago it was priced on Amazon for 9 cents each…yes, 9 whole pennies!) but she also released a Christmas album in Ireland at age 10, and at age 12 was the nationally recognized “face” of a popular sausage brand.

David Archuleta was Junior Vocal Champion on Star Search 2, and has appeared on both The Jenny Jones show and CBS’ The Early Show (you can see him on YouTube singing to Kelly Clarkson and the other Season 1 finalists in an airport…he was great even back then).

Jason Castro was the drummer for a Texas-based band named Charlamagne, which later became Keeping Lions (www.myspace.com/keepinglions) but now no longer exists. So sad. See what happens when one band member goes on to do bigger and better things!

My point, guys and gals, is this: with the exception of Opie and Dreadlocks, all our current Idol kids have had dealings with the music industry. Whether they were major-label affiliations or independent doesn’t really matter; the fact is that they’re not the “undiscovered talent” that American Idol originally aimed to find…and Idol producers seem more than willing to keep these facts as under-wraps as possible. (Its also a little ironic that arguably the best singer in the competition, Opie, hasn’t had any real dealings with the music industry--yet someone like Kristy Lee managed to get herself signed with one of the largest labels out there).