Lee DeWyze

The winner of the ninth season of American Idol in 2010 turned out to be Lee DeWyze, a rock singer, guitarist and former paint salesman, who has part of the lyric to the Cat Stevens classic Father & Son tattooed on his arm. The son of a postal worker, he was effectively discovered at 17 by Louis Svitek, who heard him singing at a house party in Chicago. Svitek got him a deal with the independent WuLi label, leading DeWyze to set up his own band and release his first album So I'm Told. His second, Slumberland, was released in 2010 shortly before he became one of the hottest singers in America with the American Idol triumph. He consistently scored high throughout the judging process, covering songs ranging from Frank Sinatra's That's Life to Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man, before his final winning performances of Simon & Garfunkel's The Boxer, REM's Everybody Hurts and U2's Beautiful Day. DeWyze celebrated his success with his first major label release Live It Up, including several of his own songs but, despite breaking into the US Top 20, the album charted lower than any previous American Idol winner.