Carly Smithson BioThis is a featured page


~Early Years

  • Carly Smithson was born Carly Hennessy in Dublin, Ireland to Luke Hennessy and Mary Murray. She started singing at the age of 3 or 4 years old and knew at a young age she wanted to be a singer. She also has some experience with acting: In 1990 she played Young Marianne in Fools of Fortune. 2 years later in 1992 she joined the cast of Les Miserables and starred as Little Cosette and was also the face of Denny's Sausages for several years. When Smithson was 10, she released her first album: Carly's Christmas Album in the UK. When she was 14, she moved to the United States to pursue a career in music.


~Musical Background

  • Smithson released an album for MCA Records called Ultimate High in 2001 as Carly Hennessy. The album did not find an audience, selling 300 copies in the first three months despite MCA Records spending over $2 million on the production and promotion of the album. The album was released on November 13, 2001. Its commercial failure was documented in an article in The Wall Street Journal. Smithson attributed the album's failure to gain traction to 9/11. Despite low record sales, she won a Meteor Award in 2003 for Best Irish Female Singer.


~Personal Life

  • After Smithson had lost her record deal, she decided to take a break from music. She met her husband Todd Smithson, a tattoo parlor owner, in Los Angeles. They moved to Atlanta for a few years, where Smithson worked at an Irish bar called Fado. In 2005, Smithson and her husband returned to San Diego and she auditioned in Las Vegas for American Idol season 5; however, she got disqualified because her visa had expired. In 2007 she auditioned again for American Idol Season 7. Smithson has an older half-brother, Nik and a younger sister, Shannon. Smithson currently lives in San Diego with her husband.


~American Idol

Season 5
  • Carly Smithson auditioned for American Idol in Las Vegas during the show's fifth season; she made it to Hollywood but was disqualified because her visa had expired.


Season 7
  • Smithson successfully auditioned again for Season 7 of American Idol and made the top 24. Shortly thereafter, articles appeared in the mainstream press pointing out connections that had been reported in various blogs for the previous month. Smithson acknowledged her previous record deal on the February 20, 2008 episode of American Idol, and stated that the record label 'imploded'.

  • In total, Smithson was in the Bottom 2 or 3 three times, on March 19 for her performance of The Beatles' "Blackbird"; on April 10 for her performance of Queen's "The Show Must Go On", after performing Superstar from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar on April 23, 2008. The day before she was eliminated Simon Cowell stated, "I thought that was the best performance of the night so far." After Ryan Seacrest announced the elimination Cowell said:
"I apologize for giving you a compliment last night—kiss of death, but let me tell you, Carly, you can leave with your head held high."

  • She was also in the audience during the Top 4 contestants' performance


~Post Idol

  • After she was eliminated on American Idol, Smithson made appearances on Live with Regis and Kelly, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Sauce, and Access Hollywood.

  • During her appearances on Access Hollywood and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she sang "Alone" by Heart. She also appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly performing the song "Here You Come Again", which she had previously performed during the Top 9 Dolly Parton week.

  • Smithson mentioned on Entertainment Weekly's "Idolatry" that she had already received offers from multiple record labels.

  • Carly Smithson performed two songs with Michael Johns on Ellen DeGeneres for her 10th anniversary show in Chicago on May 6, 2008. The songs were U2's "One" and Sam & Dave's "Hold On I'm Coming".

  • Smithson will join American Idols LIVE! Tour 2008 from July 1, 2008 to September 13, 2008.

Credit all info to Wikipedia



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