Ryan Starr

American Idol

Starr appeared during the audition rounds on the first season of American Idol. According to Simon Cowell's memoir he said "she was cripplingly shy" at the audition, but "Paula [Abdul] saw some potential for stardom in her, and decided to mentor her." Ryan Starr was received very well by the press after appearing on American Idol.

Instead of the usual pop hits that other contestants were singing, Starr chose an unusual song, "The Frim Fram Sauce," in the first semi-final. She was the second singer from that group to be voted into the Top Ten. The following week, Starr was the first to perform on American Idol's first live show. She sang "If You Really Love Me" by Stevie Wonder, and received praise from the judges, including this quote from Simon Cowell: "Pure star performance, loved it." Starr faltered when she sang The Kinks' "You Really Got Me,". The following week she sang Donna Summer's "Last Dance," and received praise from the judges, but was eliminated. She finished #7. The crowd was devestated. The fans boards went wild with confusion at her elimination.

Starr returned with the rest of the finalists during the shows' finale and sang "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'", and went on a nationwide 52-city tour with the other finalists. RCA, in partnership with American Idol, signed her. The National Tour was sold out with 20,000 people a night.

After the American Idol american Tour. Ryan Starr went on to work with HBO on the launch of American Idol in South America. She Toured Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil before coming home to start back into her acting and singing career in Los Angeles.

Post-American Idol music career

Starr blamed her stalled music career on a two-year restrictive recording contract with RCA. Under this contract, she refused to record an album claiming producers wanted to turn her into an Avril Lavigne type singer. After an intense three year legal battle she was released from contract in 2005.^[1]

Upon release from her contract, Starr went on to host "TRL" on "VH1". Starr then released an iTunes Exclusive Single, "My Religion." The song went all the way to number one on the US Billboard Hot Digital Songs Chart, and was noted in the 2005 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records to have sold the most exclusive single downloads in iTunes's history. They also went on to detail the fact that My Religion was slated to be released to stores in early 2006, however, iTunes refused to release Ryan Starr's single from contract.^[1] One of the highest selling exclusive singles ever, it sold an estimated 360,000 units worldwide according to MTV and USA Today.^[1]

In an interview given to the Today Show in early 2007, Starr revealed that iTunes had expressed interest in Starr releasing another exclusive single to follow up the immense success of "My Religion." Starr claimed that she was reluctant to accept as she wished to release a full album, but hinted she had accepted the very lucrative offer put forth by iTunes. Rumors began to circulate that 'Stranded' would be the next exclusive single when images of a single cover were released on her MySpace.^[2]

Reports were previously made that Starr turned down a three-album deal with Sanctuary Records. The deal supposedly required her to record two pop albums before being allowed to record her rock album.

Television and film career

Shortly after her run on American Idol, Starr made a guest appearance on the popular Fox network comedy That '70s Show, and had a guest role on an episode of the hit CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Starr had the lead role in the Direct-To-Video movie, Ring of Darkness.

In 2004, made her most prominent appearance since American Idol, appearing in the VH1 reality show The Surreal Life.

In fall 2008, Starr appeared in Fox Reality's Gimme My Reality Show. Starr also modeled on and off the runway for several fashion brands such as True Religion, Nicolita swimwear, Tori Praver swimwear, and several others. She also starred in a series of Harley Davidson commercials and ended up being the female rider for Harley-Davidson for their Sportster campaign in 2013.

Current Status

in 2013 Ryan moved to Bali, Indonesia where she bought a villa and worked with djs doing vocals and lyrics and continuing to model. In 2015 Ryan Starr moved to the 3rd arrondissement of Paris France where she worked as a part time fashion model and a lyricist/vocalist for a production house. In 2017 she moved back to Los Angeles and has recently released information on launching a YouTube channel, and a Fashion website site to be released early 2018 and there are talks of her making her long-awaited album slated to begin production end of 2018.

Singles

• "My Religion"
• "Love Gone Bad" posted on her MySpace
• "Stranded" posted on her MySpace
• "7am" posted on her MySpace
• "Eyes of a Child" posted on her MySpace
• "Blue" available on the Curtain Call, Volume 1 compilation
• "Broken" available on the Curtain Call, Volume 1 compilation