Carly Smithson has probably had the most buzz surrounding her of any of the season 7 American Idol contestants. With a previous failed music career, that included a big deal with a record label, music video (check out the music video here, when she was Carly Hennessy) and touring, many cried foul that Carly Smithson was perhaps too experienced for an amateur competition like American Idol.

After all, isn’t the point of American Idol to find that truly undiscovered talent? Carly Smithson has already been discovered once in her lifetime and that didn’t go oh-so-well, so what’s saying she’ll make it to the end of American Idol?

If nothing else, she has reinvigorated what she probably thought was a total failure of a career. There are plenty of Carly Smithson followers who aren’t so interested in her past, but what she can do in the future.

Carly Smithson has proved that she’s a worthy contender who can go far on the Idol stage.

• “Shadow of Your Smile” (Video)
• “Crazy on You” (Video)
• “I Drove All Night” (Video)
• “Come Together (Video)
• “Blackbird” (Video)
• “Total Eclipse of the Heart (Video)
• “Here You Come Again” (Video)
• “The Show Must Go On” (Video)