Looks like Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard weren't the only stars produced by American Idol 2.
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Kimberley Locke, who finished third on Idol 2, finally released her debut Curb Records album, One Love, featuring her former #1 single '8th World Wonder' -- and she has the biggest hit from an Idol participant not named Kelly, Clay or Ruben. In its debut, One Love placed #16 on the Nielsen SoundScan U.S. Albums Sales chart (also known as the Billboard 200) for the week ended May 9, 2004.
With sales of 56,727 units, "K-Lo" outsold and outranked the debuts of both American Idol 3 reject William Hung (37,600, #34) and American Idol 1 runner-up Justin Guarini (54,000, #20). In addition, One Love outsold last week's debut of American Idol 3: Greatest Soul Classics, which sold about 1,400 less units, although it ranked at #10 in its debut. (Greatest Soul Classics dropped to #23 in its second week).
Kimberley signed to Curb Records shortly after Simon Fuller's 19 Management and RCA Records, which have the exclusive rights to sign Idol contestants for 90 days after the end of the season (and which signed Kelly, Clay, Ruben, Justin, Idol 1 fourth-place finisher Tamyra Gray, and Idol 1 sixth-place finisher Christina Christian but have since dropped Justin) opted not to sign her. Although Curb is primarily a country label, Kimberley's signing marked a new focus on popular music as well for the label -- a focus that so far seems to be working, as '8th World Wonder' remains a Top 20 song on Billboard's Adult Contemporary charts ... and still checks in at #3 on the Nielsen SoundScan U.S. Singles Sales chart in its 9th week of release.
In addition to her singing, Kimberley's body shape markedly improved between Idol 2 and now. It appears to us that Kimberley has bought in to the "total package" idea emphasized by Idol.