David Cook

The runaway winner of the American Idol TV series in 2008, David Cook went on to create US chart history with a record-breaking 11 songs breaking into the Hot 100 in the same week, the most successful of them The Time Of My Life reaching Number 3. The Texan had already released one grunge-influenced album Analog Heart in 2006 before he appeared on American Idol having been given his first Fender Stratocaster guitar when he was 12 and gone on to appear in various school musicals. Cook abandoned a potential career as a baseball player after a serious injury to concentrate on music, relocating to Oklahoma and initially only attended American Idol auditions to support his brother; but made rapid progress after being persuaded to perform Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer in the auditions. His comfortable win in the final over David Archuleta was swiftly followed by his self-titled major label debut - which sold over a million in the US alone - and produced the hit singles Light On and Come Back To Me. Cook's good-time rock approach also proved a popular live attraction and in 2010 he started work on a new studio album.