American Idol has produced some of the biggest music stars of our generation. Jordin Sparks (Season 6), Kelly Clarkson (Season 1) and Carrie Underwood (Season 4) are among those who went on to have incredibly successful careers after emerging as overall winners in the competition.

Just making it into the show is in itself a massive platform, as some contestants who failed to win have gone on to prove. Jennifer Hudson (7th place, Season 3), Chris Daughtry (4th place, Season 5) and Adam Lambert (runner-up, Season 8) have become global superstars despite falling short of claiming the main prize.

On the other hand, while being crowned a season winner of American Idol is a great achievement, it carries no guarantees of consequent success. Caleb Johnson (Season 13), Candice Glover (Season 12) and Lee DyWyze (Season 9) are examples of winners who have not been able to hit quite the same heights as some of their peers.

In 2009, Arkansas-born Kris Allen emerged the overall winner for American Idol Season 8. It had been a long journey towards the realization of a dream that Allen had held since he was a young boy growing up in Jacksonville, Arkansas.

So just where on this spectrum of success does Allen rank and what has he been up to since his crowning moment in 2009?

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'American Idol' And Early Success

Allen dropped out of college to pursue his musical dreams, playing gigs in Little Rock and Fayetteville at night after working as a shoe salesman to make ends meet during the day.

This life inspired him to write his first album, Brand New Shoes in 2007.  It wasn't that much of a success, as it only sold less than a thousand copies. At this point, he reportedly decided to go back to college and complete his degree. He was, however, persuaded by his brother, Daniel to audition for Idol, which was at the time airing on Fox.

Allen successfully auditioned for the show in Kentucky and headed to Hollywood for the start of the competition. From the onset, he found the odds firmly stacked against him. He was not deemed one of the early favorites and very little of his performances were aired at the beginning.

He only managed to reach the semi-final stage of the competition after the judges pit him against another contestant in a sing-off that never made it to air.

After a few grueling weeks, he was finally voted in the Top 3, alongside Adam Lambert and Danny Gokey. More than 100 million votes were cast to determine the winner and although the numbers were not revealed, Allen emerged victorious.

Speaking to reporters soon after, Allen said he thought that Lambert would have been just as much a worthy winner. "I feel like Adam deserved it just as much as I did," a report by Rolling Stone quoted Allen. "He was the most consistent person all year, and seriously, one of the most gifted performers I’ve ever met."

Allen gained fame after winning Season 8 of 'American Idol'
via: GRAMMY.com

Allen went on to ride the immediate post-Idol euphoria, with his coronation song No Boundaries (co-written by judge Kara DioGuardi, as well as Cathy Dennis and Mitch Allan) rising to 11th in the US Billboard Hot 100.

Following his success on American Idol, Allen signed a record deal with Jive Records, where he went to work on his first post-show album. Titled Kris Allen, the album featured 12 songs in total, nine of which were written solely or collaboratively by him.

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Collaborators on the album included Chris Daughtry and Joe King of the band, The Fray. The album enjoyed relative success, especially in the early days. The single Live Like We're Dying was a cover of The Script song of the same name. It debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200, and sold 80,000 copies in the first week. Overall sales to date total to around 346,000.

Jive Records Disbanded

In October 2011, Jive Records was disbanded. Allen's contract was taken up by RCA Records and 19 Recordings. His second major-label album was titled Thank You Camellia, and was released in May 2012. This album contained 11 tracks.

Shortly after the release of Thank You Camellia, Allen and RCA Records parted ways. Since then, he has been producing and releasing music under his own label, DogBear Records. At DogBear, Allen has produced two further albums: Horizons in 2014 and Letting You In in 2016. The latter never made it into the Billboard 200, but Horizons managed to debut at No. 80.

In 2019, Allen released 10, a collection of re-worked songs from his old albums in reference to a decade since his success on American Idol.

Allen has been married to Katy O'Connell since 2008. They have three children, two sons and a daughter. When his third born son, Marlo James Francis arrived in August 2019, he took to Instagram to gush over his love for him. "Welcome to the world my new little man Marlo James Francis Allen!" his post was quoted in People.

Allen is also a passionate and dedicated philanthropist; he has worked with and supported organizations such as World Vision, Heifer International and Direct Relief.

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