Kara DioGuardi Biography

Summary

"Kara Elizabeth DioGuardi" (; born December 9, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, music publisher, A&R executive, and TV personality. She writes music primarily in the light pop-rock, dance, and R&B genres. DioGuardi has worked with Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Demi Lovato, Hilary Duff and Paula Abdul, among many others. She is also a judge on "American Idol", having joined the show in its eighth season and is now working with its winner, Kris Allen. DioGuardi currently serves as Vice President of A&R for Warner Bros. Records where she was appointed to in 2008. She is a cousin of the veteran TV personality Regis Philbin.

Early life

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.

Career

Professional songwriter

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. To date, she has had songs on 56 albums in the Top 10 on Billboard magazine's 200 album chart. Her songs on various hit albums have collectively sold over 100 million copies. DioGuardi can be heard performing backup vocals on some of these recordings. One of these songs being 'Reveal' off of Celine Dion's 2003 album "One Heart". She was also a co-writer for the song.

In 2006, DioGuardi collaborated with Christina Aguilera on her album "Back To Basics". DioGuardi co-wrote 12 of the 13 tracks on disc one of the album, among them being 'Ain't No Other Man', and 'Back In The Day'.

In 2007, DioGuardi worked with many notable artists, one of which was Britney Spears. DioGuardi wrote one song on Spears' album "Blackout"; the song, 'Ooh Ooh Baby'.

Among DioGuardi's notable recent projects is the song 'Not Meant To Be', which appears on Theory of a Deadman's 2008 album, "Scars & Souvenirs". DioGuardi co-wrote the song with lead singer Tyler Connolly, and 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.

Dioguardi also cowrote and sang the backup vocals for Demi Lovato's single 'The Middle' for her first album, "Don't Forget".

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

Kara also co-wrote a song called 'What If' with Ashley Tisdale for "Guilty Pleasure", Ashley's latest album.

Music publishing

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, 'Pieces of Me' by Ashlee Simpson, 'Boom Boom Pow' by the Black Eyed Peas, and 'He Could Be The One' by Hannah Montana.

Reality television

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 for the show's eighth season (January 13, 2009). She will return to "Idol" for its ninth 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, Carrie Underwood, Diana DeGarmo, and Katharine McPhee. She co-wrote the "American Idol" season 8 single, "No Boundaries", which was performed by both finalists during the competition.

The song 'No Boundaries' has since been dropped from the set list the American Idol tour

Awards and nominations

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.'

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.

Discography as vocalist

With MaD DoLL:

"Mad Doll" (1999)

With Platinum Weird:

"Make Believe" (2006)

"Platinum Weird" (2006)

Personal life

She is married to teacher turned general contractor Mike McCuddy; they wed on July 5, 2009 in Maine. The two met while he was working on a home adjacent to her property in Maine.

DioGuardi works with the Phoenix House, a non-profit substance abuse service organization; she contributes to recording studios in the facilities and helps teach the teens how to operate the equipment.

She appeared in the American Idol Season Finale in a bikini to sing against the young woman, Katrina Darrell, better known as 'Bikini Girl', after Katrina's cameo appearance during the auditions rounds.