Kara Dioguardi

Kara DioGuardi (Born December 9, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and TV personality who has contributed to a long list of internationally successful popular songs. She writes music primarily in the light pop-rock and dance genres. DioGuardi has worked with Celine Dion, David Archuleta, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Hilary Duff, Ashley Tisdale, and Paula Abdul. She is also a judge on American Idol, joining the show in its eighth season.

Kara DioGuardi was born in Ossining, New York and she is of Albanian and Italian descent. Kara 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. She 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.

In July 2006, DioGuardi was a judge in an "Idol"-like TV show called The One: Making a Music Star. The show debuted on ABC with the second-lowest rating ever for a premiere on a major American network and was abruptly canceled after just two weeks. She joined the hit Fox television show American Idol as a fourth Judge starting in the show's eighth season (January 13, 2009). 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, and Katharine McPhee. DioGuardi will replace fellow American idol judge Paula Abdul in the ninth season of "idol".

In 2003, Kara 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 altogether 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 of 2007, Kara was awarded the TAXI A&R award for Humanitarian of the Year at their annual Road Rally Convention.