Chris Daughtry

This article is about the American musician and former American Idol talent show contestant. For the Survivor contestant, see Chris Daugherty.

Chris Daughtry
Years active	2004–present

Christopher Daughtry, credited as Chris Daughtry, (born December 26, 1979) is a popular American rock singer-guitarist. He was the fourth-place finalist on the fifth season of American Idol, eliminated from the competition on May 10 2006, leaving only three contestants in the contest.

Biography

Early years

Daughtry was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. His parents are Pete and Sandra Daughtry, and they reside in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Daughtry was raised before he relocated to McLeansville outside of Greensboro. His brother, Kenneth, resides in Richmond. At the age of 16, Daughtry started taking singing seriously as a professional musician and became a popular performer with other rock bands during his time in high school. He graduated in 1998 at Fluvanna County High School in Palmyra, Virginia. In 1996, he was in the made-for-television CBS movie A Mother's Instinct as Richard Mitchell.

In 2005, Daughtry auditioned for the CBS singing contest, Rock Star: INXS. He did not make the cut for the actual filming of the show.

Daughtry is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Absent Element, based in Burlington.

In a segment on the 2006 season of American Idol, Daughtry revealed that he is balding, as a result of approaching middle age (male pattern baldness), and made the decision to shave his head completely in order to retain an aesthetically pleasing appearance.

Daughtry has been married to Deanna Robertson since April 2000. He has one step-daughter and one adopted son: a daughter, Hannah Robertson, who was born in July 1998, and a son, Griffin Robertson, who was born in January 2000, from his wife's previous marriage.

American Idol

Inspired by Bo Bice, Daughtry auditioned for American Idol in Denver, Colorado with Joe Cocker's "The Letter"; he was portrayed as a young rocker with Southern and hard rock influences. He passed the audition by a split decision: approved by Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, disapproved by Simon Cowell. Simon felt that Chris at that time was too robotic.

On March 1, 2006, Daughtry's "raw" performance of Fuel's "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" received critical acclaim by all three judges. On March 3, 2006, Jackson stated in an interview that Daughtry had been offered the opportunity to become Fuel's new lead singer. On May 11, 2006, the day following his Idol departure, Extra reported that Fuel had offered Daughtry the position as their lead singer. At a welcome home party Chris Daughtry said he had turned down an offer to be lead singer for the band Fuel.

Daughtry has also played guitar on Idol in group performances.

Daughtry was in the final four on May 10, 2006, and in a shocker was eliminated from the competition. After Ryan Seacrest announced Chris was going home that night, he asked Daughtry if he was surprised. An obviously stunned Daughtry could only utter, "Yes".

There has been some controversy regarding the accuracy of the vote count on the night Daughtry was eliminated. Many fans say they called to vote and heard a recording of Katharine McPhee thanking them for their vote, rather than one from Chris Daughtry. However, the vote-tallying website DialIdol independently predicted that Daughtry was the lowest vote-getter.

In an interview after his elimination, Daughtry said that he thought he got voted off because his fans were "overconfident" that he would be safe, so they did not call and vote.

File:AmericanIdolCompetition.png

Season 5 contestant Chris Daughtry listens as judge Randy Jackson discusses his performance during the final four performance night.

During the Season 5 finale on May 24, 2006 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, Daughtry performed the song "Mystery" with the band Live. After Daughtry's performance with Live, "Mystery" was as high as #80 on the ITunes top 100 songs. The downloadable song later appeared on Live's MySpace.com profile.

Friendship with Ace Young

Daughtry and fellow Idol contestant Ace Young have been friends since they met at the show's Denver audtions, and even periodically shared an apartment as finalists. They were also known to share similar family background, both were raised in the mountains and have Christian morals on family, etc. Ryan Seacrest had also dubbed them "the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon of the season" when the two were placed in the "bottom 2" together on Young's elimination. In the final episode of the season, a clip of them in a "Best Male Bonding" segment was also shown.

On American Idol, clips of every one of Daughtry's performances except for his acapella performance during Hollywood Week were featured on the show. Daughtry sang "The Letter" for his first audition. After being given a Golden Ticket to Hollywood he performed "The First Cut Is the Deepest", and sang "Emotions" during his duo performance with Ace Young. The song for Daughtry's a'capella performance remains unknown.

Devoted fan alliances on the net have been created, calling the friendship, "Chrisace" or "Chrace."

American Idol performances

Semi-finals

• February 22, 2006 - "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi
  • Randy Jackson praised his choice of song. Paula Abdul stated that he would "go all the way". Simon Cowell said: "For the first time tonight, now I'm hearing somebody with potential."
• March 1, 2006 - "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" by Fuel
  • The judges loved this performance. Cowell thought it was the best performance of the night, stating it was "in a different class". Jackson said that Daughtry could be on top of the charts right now. Abdul said Daughtry was amazing.
• March 8, 2006 - "Broken" by Seether
  • Jackson and Abdul liked this performance, but Cowell found it boring, chiding Chris for his song choice. He advised Chris not to be too "insular"--an idea he would reiterate in following weeks.

Finals

• March 14, 2006 - "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder
  • Theme: Stevie Wonder
    • Roundly praised by all three judges. Cowell opened his comments with, "Thank God for Chris". He said he could imagine Chris having a hit with his rendition of the song, and that Daughtry's blend of Stevie Wonder and the Red Hot Chili Peppers was the only "real world" performance making it the "best tonight, by a mile".
• March 21, 2006 - "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash as performed by Live
  • Theme: 1950's
    • The judges strongly praised Daughtry's originality in presenting a version very different from Cash's original. However, many viewers felt that this performance was similar to a version done by the alternative band Live; no reference to Live was made during the broadcast. Many fans of Daughtry have speculated that he may have given credit to Live in portions of the pre-performance interview that were edited out. On the March 28 episode, in a discussion with Seacrest, Daughtry said that it was in fact Live's version.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Chris said, "It wasn't my doing. You say a lot of things in the [pretaped] interview, and when editing gets involved, things get cut out for time constraints. I did mention in my interview that I'm doing a different version from a band I totally respect. The lead singer of Live, Ed Kowalczyk, called me to say, Man, don't listen to that. We've been talking a lot since. It's really cool for me, because that's the band that inspired me to get into music. Ed Kowalczyk is my favorite singer. It was really cool to get that kind of respect.

• March 28, 2006 - "What If" by Creed
  • Theme: Songs of the 21st Century
    • Jackson liked the song choice, but thought the singing was sharp and it was not his best performance. Abdul loved it, and said "What if...what if...what if...I am your biggest fan?!". Cowell thought he went too far with the song and that "Creed wouldn't be caught dead on this show." Cowell also advised him that he should try something different from the constant rock archetype which he has performed in for most of the competition, calling it indulgent.
• April 4, 2006 - "Making Memories of Us" by Keith Urban
  • Theme: Country
    • Jackson and Abdul liked Daughtry's austere performance and that he showed another musical side of himself. Cowell, however, thought it was a boring song choice, but still liked him showing another musical side.
• April 11, 2006 - "Innuendo" by Queen
  • Theme: Queen
    • Jackson and Abdul, generally fans of Daughtry, both said the performance was great. Cowell did not like the song, and wished that Daughtry had chosen "One of the great Queen songs", but said that the performance was done well. He said it was a little bit indulgent again.
• April 18, 2006 - "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong (Bottom 2)
  • Theme: Great American Songbook
    • All of the judges gave Daughtry's performance rave reviews; Cowell called it "great." Still, Daughtry found himself in the bottom two on elimination night.
• April 25, 2006 - "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" by Bryan Adams (Top 2)
  • Theme: Greatest Love Songs
    • All three judges loved the performance. However, due to airtime constraints, the judges were only allowed a few seconds to speak. Daughtry was in the top two on elimination night.
• May 2 2006 - " Renegade" by Styx and "I Dare You" by Shinedown
  • Theme: Song From The Contestant's Birth Year (Chris - 1979)
    • First song: All three judges gave this perfomance rave reviews. Cowell said it was a million times better than the first two performances of the night.
  • Theme: Billboard Top 10
    • Second song: The judges thought Daughtry's performance was "okay", but it was obvious to them after multiple practice sessions his voice was starting to give out.
• May 9 2006 - "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley and "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis Presley (Eliminated)
  • Theme: Elvis Presley
    • Suspicious Minds: Paula said: "You forget how good that song is, until you hear Chris Daughtry sing it. See you in the finals." Simon gave positive feedback on the first song, and criticized his second song. Daughtry was in the bottom with Katharine McPhee, on May 10, 2006. When asked by Seacrest who would be leaving, Simon expressed that he believed that Katharine should be eliminated; however, Chris, to his surprise, was the one eliminated (McPhee was surprised as well, as it seemed she was braced and ready to leave).
    • A Little Less Conversation: In an interview with TV Week, Nigel Lythgoe commented, "Jon Peter Lewis did it on the series a while ago, and I thought JPL actually did it better, and I'm a Chris fan. But somehow, again, when it got to the end of the song, I thought, "we're getting into Chris's register." Before that I thought it was... average."
• May 24 2006 - "Mystery" (duet with Live)
  • Theme: Finale
    • Although Daughtry was no longer in the competition, he performed a duet with Live and participated in the Top 12 group songs and the guys medley.

After Idol

After leaving American Idol, Daughtry travelled the talk show circuit. He made appearances on The Tonight Show, Total Request Live, and The Today Show. On the The Tonight Show, Daughtry got to spin the Wheel of Consolation Prizes. He won "a pair of choppers", which turned out to be two sets of fake chattering teeth. He also appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly and The Ellen DeGeneres Show where he performed "Wanted Dead or Alive"--his track on the American Idol Season Five: Encores CD.

Since leaving Idol, Daughtry has proved to be quite successful. His rendition of Bon Jovi's hit would later go on to chart on the Top 100 of iTunes's most downloaded tracks, entering highest out of 12 finalists. For the week of June 10, 2006, Daughtry charted #43 on the Billboard Hot 100, being named the Hot Shot Debut of the week. He has also signed with RCA/19 Entertainment, and an album is expected by the end of 2006.

Daughtry has also received an offer to become the lead singer of the rock band, Fuel. According to his "McLeansville to Hollywood" tour on June 3, 2006, Daughtry refused the deal from Fuel and is going to start on a personal record deal.

On June 7, 2006, a duet version of "Mystery", the song Daughtry performed with Live on the American Idol finale, was released via Live's official website. Daughtry is featured on guest vocals.

On June 8, 2006, Daughtry made a cameo on the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, during which he performed a parody of Daniel Powter's "Bad Day"—the "theme song" for the fifth season of Idol—with comedian Jimmy Fallon.

On June 16, Daughtry made a cameo appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in the "Fathers Day Gift Ideas" segment. In this segment he played a father who took out the trash to a talking garbage can.

America Online featured a video of Daughtry singing Stone Temple Pilots' "Plush" with a street performer on the night of the American Idol finale.

On July 10, 2006 it was announced that Daughtry had signed with 19 Entertainment and is currently working on an album to be released later this year. It was also announced that he will be forming his own band.

Chart History

Year	Single	Album	US	US Digital	US Pop
2006	"Wanted Dead or Alive"	American Idol Season 5: Encores	43	11	37

External links

• Template:AI contestant
• Template:Myspace
• Chris Daughtry at IMDb