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Kara DioGuardi

Kara Elizabeth DioGuardi (born December 9, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, music publisher, A&R executive, composer and TV personality. She writes music primarily in the light pop-rock, dance, and R&B genres. DioGuardi has worked with many popular artists; her songs have appeared on more than 159 million albums worldwide. Kara is a Grammy nominated writer, 2011 NAMM Music For Life Award winner, 2009 NMPA Songwriter Icon Award winner, 2007 BMI Pop Songwriter of the Year, and has received 15 BMI Awards for co-writing the most performed songs on the radio.

DioGuardi served as a judge on American Idol for its eighth and ninth seasons. In 2008 she was appointed to the position of executive vice president of talent development at Warner Bros. Records, and has signed acts such as Jason Derülo and Iyaz.

Kara DioGuardi

Format [[{{{Reality Show}}}]]

Judge [[{{{Judge}}}]]

Name

Kara DioGuardi

Seasons

8, 9

Birth Name

Kara Elizabeth DioGuardi

Occupation

Judge

Born

December 9, 1970

Other Judges

Simon Cowell
Paula Abdul
Randy Jackson

1 Early Life
2 Career

Early LifeEdit

DioGuardi was born in Ossining, New York. She is of Albanian (Arbëresh) and Italian descent. She is the daughter of Carol Asselta and former Republican Congressman Joseph J. DioGuardi. Her mother died in 1997 after a 7-year battle with ovarian cancer.

Kara grew up in the Wilmot Woods section of suburban New Rochelle, New York and attended kindergarten at the Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Scarsdale, New York, followed by The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, before earning a degree in political science at Duke University. After graduating from college, she worked for Billboard magazine selling advertising.

She is a cousin of the veteran TV personality Regis Philbin.

CareerEdit

DioGuardi was vocalist for the group Mad Doll who released one self-titled album in 1999.

Professional SongwriterEdit

While her early solo and band efforts did not result in commercial success, she became a highly sought-after songwriter, writing or co-writing many international hit songs from 1999 to today (see discographies and awards below). To date, she has had 39 albums in the Top 10 on Billboard's 200 album chart. Her songs are on over 100 million records. The majority of her songs have been recorded by American female artists in the pop/rock genre, with a significant minority of songs recorded by Australian females, and Latin music artists. DioGuardi can be heard performing backup vocals on some of these recordings.Kara also co-wrote song for the American pop girl group the Pussycat Dolls like "Beep", "I Don't Need A Man" in PCD(album). While in Doll Domination she co-wrote "Love The Way You Love Me".

DioGuardi also helped write the song "Not Meant To Be" with Tyler Connolly which appears on Theory of a Deadman's 2008 album, Scars & Souvenirs. She is also featured as the love interest in the music video which was released on March 10, 2009. This was her debut in the music video industry.

In 2009, she co-wrote a song called Temporary with Nick Lachey and producer Mitch Allan for Nick's upcoming CD, Coming Up for Air; the two recorded it as a duet.

Music PublishingEdit

DioGuardi co-owns Arthouse Entertainment, a publishing company that is a resource business for record companies and other music entities seeking compositions, productions, artists, and related music services. Arthouse has been a part of many chart-topping hits including Cassie's "Me & U" (written and produced by Ryan Leslie), Jim Jones' "We Fly High" (written and produced by Zukhan Bey), Nick Lachey's "What's Left of Me", David Archuleta's single "Crush" (written and produced by Eman Kiriakou), Mika's "Grace Kelly" and also OneRepublic's "Apologize" and "Stop and Stare" (all produced by Greg Wells), Faith Hill's "Lost" (written and produced by Kara DioGuardi and Mitch Allan), Sober by P!nk and "Pieces of Me" by Ashlee Simpson. Also Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas.

American IdolEdit

She joined the hit Fox television show American Idol as a fourth Judge for the show's eighth season (January 13, 2009). In an interview, Simon Cowell stated that all 4 judges are coming back next season. She has had Idol connections in the past: in 2000, DioGuardi and fellow Idol judge Paula Abdul co-wrote the UK number-one single "Spinning Around", performed by Kylie Minogue. She has written many songs sung by Idol winners and alumni such as Kelly Clarkson, David Archuleta, David Cook, Carrie Underwood, Diana DeGarmo, Katharine McPhee, and Kris Allen.

DioGuardi left the show in September 2010 after two seasons.

Awards and NominationsEdit

In 2003, DioGuardi won a BMI Cable Award for cowriting and performing, Somethin' To Say, the theme to the now-cancelled Lifetime Television series For the People, which starred Lea Thompson, Debbi Morgan, A. Martinez and Cecilia Suarez. In 2007, she was named BMI's "Pop Songwriter of the Year" for 2006, as she had accumulated ten BMI awards in the previous four years for having written the "most performed songs on the radio." To date, she has had over 46 albums in the Top 10 on Billboard magazine's 200 album chart. Her songs are on various hit albums that have collectively sold over 100 million copies.

In 2007, DioGuardi was nominated for a Latin Grammy in the category of Best Song for her writing on the Belinda single, "Bella Traición" along with co-writers Belinda, Ben Moody, Nacho Peregrin and producer Mitch Allan. In November 2007, Kara was awarded the TAXI A&R award for Humanitarian of the Year at their annual Road Rally Convention

Other ProjectsEdit

DioGuardi will serve as head judge on a singer-songwriter reality competition show called Platinum Hit, which will air on Bravo.

American Idol

Seasons

1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 ·

Judges

Simon Cowell (Seasons 1-9) · Kara DioGuardi (Seasons 8-9) · Randy Jackson · Paula Abdul (Seasons 1-8) · Ellen DeGeneres (Season 9) · Steven Tyler (Season 10-) · Jennifer Lopez (Season 10-)

Hosts

Ryan Seacrest · Brian Dunkleman (Season 1)

Winners