Diana DeGarmo - Post-Idol Music Career

Post-Idol Music Career

DeGarmo was signed to RCA Records shortly after the Idol finale and released her single, "Dreams," on June 29, 2004. The single reached number 2 in Canada and number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 sales chart. The single also included her version of "I Believe" and a remake of Melissa Manchester's "Don't Cry Out Loud". She recorded her debut album in between American Idol summer tour stops.

DeGarmo's debut album, titled Blue Skies, was released on December 7, 2004, to opening week sales of 47,000. The album debuted at number 52 on the Billboard chart. DeGarmo did not write any of the 11 songs on her pop/rock leaning debut. She recorded songs written by future American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi, Desmond Child, Adam Shankman, and Andreas Carlsson, among others. As of fall 2008 the album had sold 168,000 copies with little to no advertising. The lone single from the CD, "Emotional" was released to radio in November 2004, peaking at number 54 on the Mediabase Pop Chart. She toured independently in the spring and summer of 2005 in support of Blue Skies. During the same time she recorded a song for the soundtrack of the Disney movie Ice Princess. "Reaching for Heaven", written by Desmond Child, can be heard during the climatic ice skating scene in the movie. RCA and DeGarmo parted ways in June 2005. On September 17, 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.

DeGarmo began recording a pop/R&B album in 2007, however she backed out of the project in order to return to her country music roots. After filming CMT's Gone Country in late 2007, DeGarmo relocated to Nashville. She signed to John Rich's production company and recorded material with him in 2008. The songs were never released and Diana moved on to other collaborators. In February 2009 she self released a 4 song EP, "Unplugged in Nashville," to digital retailers.

In March 2012, DeGarmo wrote "Good Goodbye" for use with her character on The Young and the Restless. It was released to iTunes and was included on her May 2012 five song EP "Live to Love." After producing a music video for "Good Goodbye," fans were asked to vote on two versions of the video on the American Idol website. The winning video is available on iTunes.

In an August 27, 2012 interview with Fox 5 Las Vegas, Diana revealed she and Ace Young are in talks to headline their own Las Vegas based music variety show. They describe their vision as "Sonny and Cher for our generation and demographic."