2012–14: Post-Idol and A Messenger Following his elimination, Dixon appeared on various shows. He performed a rendition of "Everything" by Lifehouse on
Live! with Kelly on April 23, 2012. He treated
Access Hollywood viewers to a reprise of the same swan song. He came back to
The Ellen DeGeneres Show to perform
Billy Joel’s "
Piano Man" on April 26, 2012. Dixon and fellow contestant
Elise Testone performed on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on April 27, 2012. He was invited to the
White House Correspondents Dinner as a special guest of the
Christian Broadcasting Network on April 28, 2012. He also started collaborating with
Brandon Heath. He debuted an original song called "
Never Gone" at the
American Idols LIVE! Tour 2012. Colton says he wants his debut album to feature "faith-based music" without alienating a wider audience. He released the original song he performed on the Idol tour, "
Never Gone", on
iTunes September 25, 2012, which is included on his debut album. |Never Gone| debuted at number one on the Christian Digital Sales chart. His debut single entitled "You Are" hit U.S. radio airwaves on October 19, 2012, and was released on iTunes on October 30, 2012. This was his second consecutive song to reach number one on the Christian Digital Sales chart. It also became a Top 10 hit on both the Christian Airplay chart and Hot Christian Songs chart. On January 3, 2013, Dixon led the song "Jesus Paid It All" at the Passion 2013 Conference. On January 29, 2013, Dixon released his album
A Messenger through
Sparrow Records. It debuted at number 15 on the
Billboard 200, number one on the U.S. Christian Chart and number one on the U.S. Gospel Chart. Dixon and
Jessica Sanchez held a concert at the
Smart Araneta Coliseum in
Manila on February 14. Dixon and
Josh Wilson are supporting
Third Day on
The Miracle Tour, the tour started on February 21, 2013, in
Fairfax, Virginia and ends on May 19, 2013, in
Orlando, Florida. Dixon's sister, Schyler, was also on the tour for some dates. Dixon appeared on the
twelfth season of
American Idol on March 28, 2013, on the Top 8 results show singing his new single "
Love Has Come for Me". "Love Has Come for Me" reached 28 on the Christian Digital Sales chart. He went on the Hits Deep Tour with
TobyMac in November and December 2013. Dixon re-released
A Messenger on January 7, 2014., which included remixes and tracks included in special store editions.
2014–15: Anchor and The Calm Before the Storm It has been announced that he plans on releasing his second album in the summer of 2014. The lead single, "
More of You", was released to iTunes on June 24, 2014. It reached number nine on the Hot Christian Songs chart and number five on the Christian Airplay chart. It also reached number two on the Christian Digital Sales chart. On June 19, 2014, Dixon revealed that his sophomore studio album would be titled
Anchor and would be released on August 19, 2014, along with the album's artwork. Two promotional singles were released, "Our Time Is Now" and "Dare to Believe". "Our Time Is Now" reached 45 on the Hot Christian Songs chart and 33 on the Christian Digital Sales chart. "Dare to Believe" reached 38 on the Hot Christian Songs chart and reached 19 on the Christian Digital Sales chart. After the albums release, two single were subsequently released, "Through All of It" and "Limitless". "Through All of It" reached 11 on the Hot Christian Songs chart and number six on the Christian Airplay chart. "Limitless" reached number 21 on the Hot Christian Songs chart and number 18 on the Christian Airplay chart.
Anchor debuted at number 23 on the Billboard 200 and debuted at number one on the Top Christian Album chart. On July 26, 2015, Colton announced via Twitter that he will participate in
This is Not a Test Tour with
tobyMac and
Britt Nicole. An album,
The Calm Before the Storm will be released on September 11 that will contain dual EPs,
Calm, a collection of acoustic songs and
Storm, a compilation of remixed tracks, that will contain songs from
A Messenger and
Anchor, including versions of "You Are", "Never Gone" and "More of You".
2016–2020: Identity Dixon released a single, "All That Matters", on January 13, 2017, and his new album,
Identity, was released on March 24, 2017. ==Personal life==