Diana's Bio

Fun Facts:

Diana has a brother named David, who is around 11 years older than her, and also serves in the marines. Her brother also has two daughters, which makes Diana an aunt.
Diana Favorite desserts are Tiramisu & Key Lime Pie.
Diana is obsessed with cars, and loves NASCAR. Her favorite NASCAR racers are Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. She said "I love them both, even though they’re completely different."
Diana performed a medley of popular Disney songs at the 21st annual Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade.
When Diana auditioned for "American Idol", her audition number was 49094.
Diana is known as "The National Anthem Girl", because she has sang it at many sports events since age 9.
Diana was a contestant on NBC's "America's Most Talented Kid" in 2003. She made it all the way to the finals.
Diana won the title of Miss Teen Georgia 2002 and participated in Miss Teen Georgia 2003.
Diana got to meet one of her idols Celine Dion on her 16th birthday in Las Vegas.

Bio from RCA:

She is one of the most recognized teenagers in America, but she's not just well-known. She is also a positive role model, a perfect example of achieving a dream while dealing with life's ups and downs. She is 17-year-old Diana DeGarmo, and her life hasn't been the same since she competed on the third season of "American Idol," finishing in the top two. Now, her debut album is on the charts. Reviewing the CD, Billboard raved that "Idol" fans will "find their heroine in Diana DeGarmo's trustworthy debut, 'Blue Skies,'" and called the album "radically refreshing" and filled with "timeless pop melodies that display a voice we've come to love."
DeGarmo recorded a majority of the tracks on the album while on tour with the other finalists from third season of "American Idol," working with producers like David Foster, John Shanks and Desmond Child. While taping an ABC-TV special at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Diana had a chance to reflect on the 12 tracks that grace her first album:

CARDBOARD CASTLES
"Cardboard Castles" is the second song I recorded. The first time I heard it I wasn't sure if I liked it, but the more I listened, the more it grew on me. Now it's one of my favorite tracks on the album. I hadn't slept very much when we did the first session, so we went back in and worked on it some more at the Record Plant. The second time around I had a more personal feeling for the song - and I had slept a little more!

BLUE SKIES
"Blue Skies" is one of the songs co-written by Kara DioGuardi. She's really cool. She knows her music well and how to interpret it. She also knows how to have fun.
This was the last song recorded for the album. I got a call from RCA asking how soon could I hear a new song. Since I had just arrived in Los Angeles, I said, "Now!" I heard the song and loved it and recorded it six hours later.
I love the meaning of the lyrics. It's a big "thank you" song. "Thank you for blue skies, thank you for everyone. When I recorded it, I hadn't come up with an album title yet. It fit with the album cover and the direction of the album.

EMOTIONAL
"Emotional" was the very first song I recorded for the album. We recorded it in Los Angeles and the first time I heard it, I said this is going to be the single. It's a great pop song with great words and a great chorus. It's easy to sing along with. I made it my own by picking out key words in each line that meant a lot to me.

THEN I WOKE UP
"Then I Woke Up" is the most fun song on the album. The first time you hear it, you can instantly visualize what the video should be. This song is about what every teenage girl dreams about. She's the girl next door but when she dreams she's on top of the world.
When we were recording it, there was a lyric that I thought went, I'm a little Lynyrd Skynyrd." So I sang it that way, and the producer, John Shanks, said, "What did you just say?" It turns out the real words were "I'm a little Sk8ter Boi." That's not something I would say, and John liked the 'Lynyrd Skynyrd" line, so he changed it.
A couple of days later, I was in a hotel in Garden City, New Jersey, and walked into the elevator and met Ricky Medlock, the guitar player for Lynyrd Skynyrd. In another weird coincidence, his fiancée went to the same high school I go to."
The song has a bit of a country rock feel, which I think is cool.

ALL I NEVER WANTED

We recorded the song half in New York and half in Los Angeles. When we were in New York, John Shanks was in L.A. so he was on the phone. I could hear him through my headphones, but on a slight delay, which was a little weird. He kept saying how he wanted it to sound - a little softer here, a little louder there. The choruses were done in New York and the verses in L.A.

GO ON AND CRY
"Go On And Cry" was the very song I picked to record. I was in Clive Davis' office, and it was the first song I heard where I said that I absolutely loved it.
It was written by David Foster and his wife, Linda Thompson - it was one of the first songs they have written together in the last five years. David produced it at his studio, in his home in Malibu. He's such a genius. He doesn't use Pro Tools. He has a 48-track machine that he taps with a pencil and it goes 900 mph. Linda was in the studio too,m coaching us and rooting us along.

THE DIFFERENCE IN ME
"The Difference in Me" was produced by John Shanks. It was easy for me to relate to it because you can hear the teenager in the song. This was recorded on a day we worked on five different songs and completed three of them.

TILL YOU WANT ME
"Till You Want Me" is a song I really like because it talks about the cat-and-mouse game played every day between boys and girls. It's a song where you can hit the top of your range and really belt it out and I like that. It's a song I love to sing along with in the car. I know I've scared some other drivers.

DREAMS
"Dreams" was my first single. I get to sing it my own way now. When I recorded it, nobody knew who was going to win and who was going to release it. Now, it's become my song. The more you sing it, the more it becomes yours. It's an awesome song to perform live because the band really gets showcased.

BOY LIKE YOU
"Boy Like You" is the song to play if you're ever mad at a guy. It's about what I've gone through as a teenaged girl with guys, They can be a little mean sometimes, like when you have a boy for a friend that you really like and he wants your help to get a girlfriend. He sees right past you.

DREAM, DREAM, DREAM
"Dream Dream Dream" is my "country" song - it reminds me of my country roots and my days before "American Idol." It's a lot of fun, and a very upbeat positive song with a lot of fiddle stuff going on in the back. I really enjoy singing it.

DON'T CRY OUT LOUD
"Don't Cry Out Loud" was recorded in New York while I was still on "American Idol." The first day, I recorded it by myself. Clive Davis listened to it and said it was great but that I needed to connect more with the song. An hour later, Melissa Manchester, who originally recorded the song, came to the studio. We talked about the song and what it meant to each of us. She drew a little square on my lyric sheet and said I should write the first initial of the person I was going to sing the song to. I did, and she said, "Now see that person's eyes. Sing it to that person. Tell it like you're having a conversation about how hard a struggle it's been." Adding that emotion is made it amazing.

It seems like Diana was working her entire lifetime to get to the moment when her debut album would be released. "It's a great feeling of accomplishment to have a full album out in stores and available for downloading on the internet. I think it's great that people are finally going to hear my music. A lot of time and energy and hard work and dedication went into recording the album and I hope people have as much fun listening to it and I did recording it."
DeGarmo's journey began on June 16, 1987, when she was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Her family moved several times before settling in Snellville, Georgia. It was obvious when she was very young that Diana had musical talent. "I always loved singing," she explains. The DeGarmos went through four copies of Patsy Cline's greatest hits collection because Diana kept wearing out the cassettes. "One time we were in downtown Atlanta at a traffic light and I rolled down the window and said to the people in the car next to us, 'Do you want to hear a song?' Luckily, they were good sports. I busted out into 'Crazy' by Patsy and my mom said, 'You really like this!'"
Diana was also influenced by listening to CDs by Ella Fitzgerald and Celine Dion in her mother's record collection. When she was in kindergarten, Diana gave her first public performance with Dion's "Beauty and the Beast," a song she performed in December 2004 in front of Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom for the "Disney Christmas Parade" special on ABC-TV. Thinking back to that kindergarten performance and how far her daughter had come brought tears to the eyes of Diana's mother, Brenda DeGarmo.
Diana was in third grade when Atlanta hosted the Summer Olympics. Diana got a paying job as a Coca-Cola Kid, performing three shows a day with other children. The following year, she sang at Opryland during the Christmas season. Her repertoire included Patsy Cline's "Crazy," but by seventh grade Diana wanted to go in a different musical direction. "I really loved pop music, like Celine and Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera."
During the seventh and eighth grades, Diana sang at corporate events for an international apparel firm. She was 14 when she competed in the Miss Georgia Teen pageant, and won the $2,000 scholarship first prize. Diana also spent a lot of time in recording studios. "I did a lot of voiceovers for younger children because they can't read and I could do a younger kid's voice. I never went in and recorded music."
At this point, Diana began to take her music more seriously. Knowing that many popular young recording artists were cutting tracks in Sweden, she decided to travel to Scandinavia to find success. Her grandparents helped finance the trip. While nothing happened professionally, Diana is glad she spent time out of the U.S. "I learned so much about recording in general," she says.
Next, Diana tried out for the NBC-TV series "America's Most Talented Kid." She was selected as a contestant, but didn't win. Undeterred, she watched the first two seasons of "American Idol," and when she turned 16 decided to audition for the third season. Although auditions were held in Atlanta, she had a prior commitment and couldn't attend, so she flew to Honolulu, where Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson decided she was going to Hollywood. There she made the final 32 and was the first contestant chosen for the top 12. She survived all of the weekly eliminations to compete in the finale with Fantasia Barrino.
Since the "Idol" finale, Diana completed the summer tour with the other contestants, recorded her album, and has appeared on many TV shows and magazine covers. Only 16 when she was on "American Idol," she finally turned 17 and celebrated with a homecoming party in Snellville. "When you're 16, people treat you like a little kid," says Diana. "But when you're 17, you're closer to 18, so you're closer to being an adult. That's been the biggest change in my life. It's nice."

Older Bio (8-17-04)