Professional songwriting DioGuardi has a songwriting catalog of several hundred songs; over 300 have been released on major labels worldwide and over 150 have appeared on platinum selling albums. She has had 50 international charting singles over the course of her career, and her songs have helped propel more than 66 albums into the top ten of the
Billboard 200. Her songs have been featured in major motion pictures, television shows, film soundtracks, and radio spots, as well as in national and international commercial campaigns. She wrote with
Ashlee Simpson for Simpson's first and second albums, in 2003 and 2004. She collaborated with
Thalía in 2003 for her self-titled album
Thalía. In 2004, DioGuardi co-wrote one-sixth of the tracks off
Kelly Clarkson's sophomore album
Breakaway including Clarkson's hit "
Walk Away". DioGuardi then worked with Australian singer,
Ricki-Lee Coulter on her 2005 single
Sunshine from her debut studio album,
Ricki-Lee, which was released in October of the same year. She also worked with
Christina Aguilera on her album
Back to Basics in 2006, co-writing twelve of the thirteen tracks on disc one of the album, among them being "
Ain't No Other Man" and "Back in the Day". In the same year, she collaborated with
Jesse McCartney on his album
Right Where You Want Me, co-writing four songs called "Anybody", "Invincible", "Running Away", and "Feels Like Sunday". In 2007, DioGuardi worked with many notable artists, one of whom was
Britney Spears. DioGuardi wrote and produced "Ooh Ooh Baby" and co-produced "Heaven on Earth" on Spears' album
Blackout. DioGuardi also contributed a majority of the songs on
Hilary Duff's fourth studio album,
Dignity. Since
American Idol Season 8, DioGuardi returned to songwriting and producing, and has worked with number of artists, including
Pink's "
Sober," Kelly Clarkson's "
I Do Not Hook Up,"
Melanie Martinez's "
Pity Party" and "
Cake,"
Cobra Starship's "
Good Girls Go Bad,"
Katharine McPhee's "
Had It All",
Carrie Underwood's "
Undo It", and
Theory of a Deadman's "
Not Meant to Be" among other releases. Among DioGuardi's projects is the song "Not Meant to Be", which appears on Theory of a Deadman's 2008 album,
Scars & Souvenirs. She 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. The song was her debut in the music video industry. In 2007, a song DioGuardi and
Eurythmics member
Dave Stewart had written a year ago "
Taking Chances" was recorded by
Celine Dion and released as the first single from the album
Taking Chances in September 2007. (DioGuardi and Stewart had previously collaborated under the band name "
Platinum Weird".) The song was a success around the world reaching the top ten in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy and Switzerland. It also peaked at number 40 on the UK Singles Chart, while reaching number 54 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2009, DioGuardi wrote "If I Can't Have You" for
Meat Loaf's 2010 album
Hang Cool Teddy Bear and recorded the vocal as a duet with him. She is also one of the writers for "
Ghost", which was released as a single from
Fefe Dobson's album
Joy (2010). She wrote songs for Aussie singer
Natalie Imbruglia's third studio album
Counting Down the Days. After taking a break from writing, DioGuardi was one of the writers of Kelly Clarkson's "
Heartbeat Song" which was the first single from Clarkson's seventh studio album
Piece by Piece (2015). DioGuardi also co-wrote "Rebel Hearts" for Hilary Duff's
Breathe In Breathe Out album in 2015.
Songs for film and television DioGuardi has also written for films and television series. She wrote "Halo" for
One Tree Hill, "Brand New Day" for
Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, "We Rock" and "Play My Music" for
Camp Rock, "He Could Be the One" for
Hannah Montana, "Set This Party Off" for
Jonas, and "Someone Watching over Me" for
Raise Your Voice. She has written songs which have been used as themes including "Taking Chances" on
Glee, "Come Clean" on
Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, "Autobiography" on
The Ashlee Simpson Show.
Music publishing DioGuardi co-owns Arthouse Entertainment, a publishing company which 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
B.O.B's "Nothin' On You";
Bruno Mars' "Just The Way You Are" and "Grenade";
Cee-Lo Green's "Forget You",
Flo Rida's "Club Can't Handle Me",
Demi Lovato's "Heart Attack";
Jason DeRulo's "Want to Want Me" and "Trumpets";
Eminem's "Monster",
Zedd's "Beautiful Now",
Jon Bellion's "All Time Low",
Maroon 5's "Memories",
Illenium's "Good Things Fall Apart",
Halsey's "Graveyard",
Florida Georgia Line's "Simple", and
Ingrid Andress' "More Hearts Than Mine."
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. In 2009, she joined the hit
Fox television show
American Idol as a fourth judge for the show's
eighth season alongside judges
Simon Cowell,
Randy Jackson, and
Paula Abdul. DioGuardi returned to
Idol for its
ninth season alongside Cowell, Jackson, and new judge
Ellen DeGeneres who replaced Paula Abdul after she quit the show in contract disagreements. However, DioGuardi decided to leave the show on September 3, 2010 and did not return for the tenth season of
Idol. It has since been said that DioGuardi helped
Steven Tyler become a judge on American Idol, after they worked together at DioGuardi's house in
Los Angeles. She has had
Idol connections in the past: in 2000, DioGuardi and former
Idol judge
Paula Abdul co-wrote the UK number-one single "
Spinning Around", performed by
Kylie Minogue. DioGuardi has written many songs sung by Idol winners and alumni such as
Kelly Clarkson,
Allison Iraheta,
David Archuleta,
Carrie Underwood,
Diana DeGarmo,
Katharine McPhee,
Kris Allen,
Danny Gokey, and
Adam Lambert. DioGuardi co-wrote the
American Idol season eight coronation single "
No Boundaries", which was performed by both finalists during the competition. DioGuardi struggled to find her place among the judges. In Richard Rushfield's book, "American Idol: The Untold Story," he reveals that often the other judges would leave the studio during commercial breaks, leaving DioGuardi behind to awkwardly sit by herself. DioGuardi also co-wrote with
Jason Reeves a song called "Terrified" for
Katharine McPhee's album
Unbroken, which was covered by
Didi Benami, an
American Idol contestant from Season 9, during Hollywood week. DioGuardi recorded a video of herself singing "Terrified" with Jason Reeves on YouTube, which has over 1,800,000 views. She appeared on
Hannah Montana as herself in the episode "Judge Me Tender". After leaving
American Idol, she was a head judge on the
Bravo singer-songwriter competition series
Platinum Hit.
Other projects DioGuardi guest starred as herself on
The Simpsons and
Sesame Street. From September 5 – October 30, 2011, she made her
Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in
Chicago. She released an autobiography after her departure from
American Idol named
A Helluva High Note; Surviving Life, Love and American Idol. Since 2012, she has taught a semester course called "Hitmaking with Kara DioGuardi" at
Berklee College of Music in
Boston. The course was developed specifically for the fall 2012 curriculum; it has paired 27 student songwriters and producers to mirror today's music industry practices. One of her students was
Charlie Puth. In late 2017, DioGuardi helped launch the first effort in
Maine of a national program working to prevent child sexual abuse, the Enough Abuse Campaign (EAC).
Awards and nominations In 2003, DioGuardi won a
BMI Cable Award for co-writing and performing "Somethin' To Say", the theme to the
Lifetime Television series
For the People, which starred
Lea Thompson,
Debbi Morgan,
A. Martinez, and
Cecilia Suárez. DioGuardi has been awarded 15 BMI Awards for having co-written the most performed songs on the radio. One of the industry's most highly sought after songwriters and producers, her songs have appeared on records which have sold more than 150 million copies combined. In 2007, she was nominated for a
Latin Grammy in the category of Song of the Year for writing the
Belinda single "
Bella Traición" along with co-writers Belinda,
Ben Moody, Nacho Peregrin and producer
Mitch Allan. In November 2007, DioGuardi was awarded the TAXI A&R award for Humanitarian of the Year at the annual Road Rally Convention. == Discography ==