Danny Gokey made chart history with his debut album, My Best Days. He achieved the highest first-week album sales by a debut country male in 18 years! First week sales of the album reached more than 65,000 copies. The sales also earned My Best Days this week’s highest chart entry by a debut artist, landing at #3 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and #4 on the all-genre Billboard 200. Two days after his album debuted, Danny performed “My Best Days Are Ahead Of Me” on the Top 20 American Idol results show. View photos of his performance and read his recent interview with AmericanIdol.com.

American Idol Jordin Sparks announced her Battlefield Tour yesterday! The Season 6 winner promoted her sophomore album during summer and fall on tour with Britney Spears, but now Jordin will be headlining the Battlefield Tour starting April 24th. Here is the list of tour dates and locations:
24-Apr Tropicana Casino* (18+) - Atlantic City, NJ
25-Apr Starland Balroom - Sayreville, NJ
27-Apr Nokia (16+) - New York, NY
28-Apr Orpheum - Boston, MA
30-Apr HB Casino (18+) - Hampton, NH
2-May Hersheypark Amphitheatre - Hershey, PA
4-May Capitol Bank Theater - Westbury, NY
5-May Turning Stone - Verona, NY
6-May The Armory - Rochester, NY
9-May First Ave - Minneapolis, MN
11-May Palace Theater - Pittsburgh, PA
13-May House Of Blues - Chicago, IL
14-May Diamon Jo Casino (21+) - Dubuque, IA
15-May Pageant - St. Louis, MO
17-May House Of Blues - Houston, TX
18-May House Of Blues - Dallas, TX
20-May Marquee - Phoenix, AZ
21-May House Of Blues - San Diego, CA
22-May Club Nokia - Los Angeles, CA
23-May The Grove of Anaheim - Anaheim, CA
26-June Dixie Landin' - Baton Rouge, LA

Season 5’s runner-up, Katharine McPhee, performed at the White House on March 8th for International Women’s Day. She sang a song that she wrote called “Surrender” from her new album Unbroken. The President and the First Lady were sitting in the front row for Katharine’s performance! Last week was a very busy one for Kat, because in addition to her White House performance, she had a guest spot on Community and she performed on The Tonight Show. Katharine also announced that she is acting in a pilot for an upcoming comedy called The Pink Room.

Chris Daughtry’s band, Daughtry, will perform in White River State Park in downtown Indianapolis as part of the three-day free music festival known as The Big Dance during the 2010 NCAA Men’s Final Four. Daughtry will kick off the Final Four weekend on Saturday, April 3. The band is currently touring around North America. Check out the Daughtry tour schedule.

Season 8’s top girl, Allison Iraheta, will sing the national anthem to kick off the 25th annual Los Angeles Marathon on March 21st, though it won't be the rocker girl’s first experience with the event. According to her Idol bio Q&A, Allison ran it twice. She told the L.A. Times, "I ran the marathon before -- two years in a row, actually. But it will be a lot of fun to be watching and not running this year. Hopefully, I can bring a little motivation to those that are doing it for the first time."

The starting line gun will fire at 7:20 a.m. just outside Dodger Stadium and immediately after Allison's turn, but she's sticking around to cheer on her older sister, who's also attempting the 26-mile course.

As for Allison's own running time? "My first year took around 6 1/2 hours and I was walking, running, I sat a few times," she told the Times Idol Tracker. "The second year, it took me eight hours, which doesn't makes sense, but I would say I was held back a little. I stayed with a few that were doing the marathon for the first time. It's amazing that there are some people who finish in, like, three hours." Though Allison said that she couldn't walk for a week, the 17-year-old Los Angeles area native says finishing the marathon was an enriching experience. "I remember rolling out of bed the next morning to go to school and I couldn't even get my pants on," she recalls. "You're in such pain. you can't bend over! But it's worth it, because you feel so good."

Allison performed at the first Season 9 results show. Click here to watch her post-performance interview with AmericanIdol.com.