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Who's Orianthi? The singer who just broke out on 'American Idol'
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The "American Idol" results show on Wednesday featured three performers. David Cook and Ke$ha, you've probably heard of. Cook won "Idol" two years ago, and Ke$ha has one of the biggest singles of the past year in "Tik Tok."Orianthi has a hit too -- her song "According to You" is currently No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. After her performance on Wednesday's (March 17) "Idol," it may go a little higher.
So, here are a few things you might not know about Orianthi:
- Her full name is Orianthi Panagaris. She's 25 and hails from Adelaide, Australia.
- At 18, she played with Carlos Santana at a sound check for one of his shows in Adelaide and then ended up joining him on stage later that night.
- She gained notice in the U.S. as part of Carrie Underwood's backing band at the 2009 Grammys.
- Following the Grammy performance, Michael Jackson tapped her to be part of his "This Is It" tour; she's also featured in the movie.
Here's her performance from "Idol" Wednesday night.
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Why did American Idol put her on?
Was she a former contestant?
It seemed weird to me, like they had her under contract and were trying to promote her.
tim, she's not a former contestant. She's signed to 19 Entertainment, the umbrella group that Idol falls under so there's some crossover there but that's it.
Her song is on mainstream radio right now and is gaining a lot of popularity. My daughter loves her. I think they're just promoting her because her song is becoming such a hit and she is with 19 Entertainment. I really like her, too.
Not everyone who performs on AI has a connection to the show.
Orianthi is hot!
she is hot. she'a the guitarist of MJ's movie well how cool is that! so hot, so sexy and ?????
geez - like momx2 said she's on the radio and like you said she has the MJ connection - it is not like she just suddenly appeared out of nowhere and Idol was her big break.
Dont be so sure about her 'hit' going higher, she was horrible, her voice was the worst on that stage of AI singers, and that says alot.
She sings better than Taylor Swift IMO...and she can play the guitar better than Neal Tiemann. I think she'll do just fine.
Holy bologne!!!!They just want to buy the million viewers of "idol" if she'll click in the market or not. Another one-hit-wonder, pity her. Still she had the shot though.