Diana's Bio

Diana DeGarmo will never forget the year she was 16. After waiting two seasons to be old enough to audition for "American Idol," the teenager from Snellville, Georgia waited in line with thousands of other hopefuls and made it to Hollywood, into the top 32, into the top 12, and then into the top two for a dramatic conclusion to the third season of the highly-rated television talent competition. Diana's life hasn't been the same since.
For starters, her single "Dreams" / "Don't Cry Out Loud" debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Sales chart, and is already one of the best-selling singles of 2004. She's made appearances on "Tonight Show With Jay Leno", "The View", "The Early Show", "Live With Regis & Kelly", "TRL" etc…and is touring the U.S. this summer as part of the "American Idols Live" tour featuring finalists from the series' third season.
Diana DeGarmo was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 16, 1987. A job transfer at a tool company for her father took the family to Tampa, Florida, before he started his own company in Atlanta and the family moved to Snellville. Diana's mother was a court reporter for 27 years, handling major cases over three states. Retired from court work, Brenda DeGarmo now manages her daughter. "She takes care of me very well," says the young star.
It was obvious almost from the womb that Diana was musical. "I always loved singing," she explains. The DeGarmos went through four copies of Patsy Cline's greatest hits collection because as a child, Diana wore 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. Her first public performance was a kindergarten rendition of Dion's "Beauty and the Beast." A third grade student 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 ended up winning 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.
The next step on her journey was trying out for the NBC-TV series "America's Most Talented Kid." Diana 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 being held in Atlanta, she had a prior commitment and couldn't attend. Instead, she picked the next city on the list - Honolulu.
The city was experiencing a freak heat wave when Diana lined up at Aloha Stadium at 6 a.m. The next morning, the lines started moving at 6 a.m. Diana watched an "American Idol" producer reject every person in line ahead of her and was afraid she would suffer the same fate. "I was terrified because she looked so mean and then she jumped out of her chair and said, 'You were great!' I was so excited, I remember running up all those stairs at the stadium to the very top to fill out paperwork."
The next day, Diana auditioned for executive producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick. She performed "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from the Broadway musical "Dreamgirls," but the producers told her to sing something younger, like a Britney Spears song. She resisted but they insisted, so she sang a Christina Aguilera song instead, and they told her she was through to the next round, where she would come before Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson.
The judges argued about whether she was too cute and too young, and then sent her through to Hollywood. She advanced into the final 32, and was the first contestant chosen for the top 12. Week after week contestants were eliminated, but not Diana. She impressed viewers with performances of songs like "Turn the Beat Around," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Do You Love Me" and one of her personal favorites, "I've Got the Music in Me." When the last two were standing, it was Diana DeGarmo vs. Fantasia Barrino in the exciting conclusion to season three of "American Idol."
Since the finale of the TV series, Diana has been busy promoting her first single and touring the U.S. with the other third season finalists. Three weeks after the season finale, Diana celebrated her 17th birthday 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."

Newer Bio (2-1-05)