Kellie Pickler

In 2005, singer Kellie Pickler landed a spot in the fifth season of American Idol. Though she finished sixth, the former waitress and Miss North Carolina contestant charmed American audiences with her Southern twang and blonde ambition, resulting in a contract with BNA Records that yielded her debut album, Small Town Girl, in the fall of 2006 and an eponymous sophomore release in 2008, which yielded Pickler's first Top Ten hit, “Best Days of Your Life,” a song she co-wrote with Taylor Swift. Her third album, the Frank Liddell-produced 100 Proof, appeared late in 2011.