‘American Idol’ notes: Carrie Underwood, Lee DeWyze, Phillip Phillips

Ready for more “American Idol” notes? This Saturday edition is all about winners, as we have a trio of stories now to share from some of the most-popular winners to ever grace the show’s famous stage.

Carrie scores big – Let’s start with the massive new ticket sales data coming in now courtesy of Carrie Underwood. How popular is the season 4 winner? Apparently, she’s able to sell close to half a million tickets around the world within the span of one year, and she also grossed more than $29 million. This data is coming in now via Pollstar, who is ranking Underwood is the top female country touring artist of all of 2012. This is an especially big honor when you remember that some of the other ladies in this genre include such heavy-hitters as Taylor Swift (who spent a part of this year writing and recording her album “Red”) and Miranda Lambert.

The 2013 leg of Carrie’s “Blown Away” tour will launch in February, and will carry on throughout the spring.

A message from Lee – Season 9 champ Lee DeWyze had been on a tour of his own during the fall, where he debuted a number of new songs and performed some old favorites. So when are we going to see some of these new tracks in album form? Based on what he wrote recently in a new post on his Twitter account, the answer seems to be “very soon”:

“Hey everyone :) Been VERY focused this week, getting ready for a lot if things that are happening. I’ve never been more excited to share… Than I am right now :) I can’t wait to release this music. We’re closer than ever. And I can share the news in the next week.”

Hopefully, this new will be a release date for at least a new single, if not a date for the album as a whole. Fingers crossed, and we’ll have more news soon.

Phillip’s new achievement – Phillip has had a great deal of success with his debut album “The World from the Side of the Moon,” and thanks to a sale on iTunes, he can now brag about how the sales continue to climb. The disc is being projected by Billboard to sell anywhere from 55,000 to 75,000 copies in the next week, which should take him close to the 600,000 mark.

We do think that Phillip will eventually receive Certified Platinum status for this album, but how long it takes him to make it there will largely depend on the success of his second single “Gone, Gone, Gone.”

If you want to read some more news on Phillip and another winner in Kris Allen, you can do so here.

Photo: Fox