The Nashville Star winners, and how they've done, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The first winner of Nashville Star, in the spring of 2003, was 41-year-old Buddy Jewell. On the strength of his win, Jewell's self-titled album earned him a gold record and two top-five country hits ("Help Pour Out the Rain [Lacey's Song]" [#3] and "Sweet Southern Comfort" [#3]) . With the release of a second album, Times Like These, Jewell was thought to have secured his place as a legitimate country music star. However, after Times Like These underperformed, selling only approximately 80,000 copies following its release, Jewell was dropped from the Sony BMG roster.

In 2004, the second winner was 33-year-old Brad Cotter, who enjoyed very limited success after his win. Cotter won a recording contract with Sony Music on its Epic Records label. His first album, Patient Man, performed poorly, selling less than 140,000 copies. He was subsequently dropped from the roster. Cotter remains on tour opening for other country artists, such as Mark Chesnutt and Restless Heart.

The 2005 winner was 18-year-old Erika Jo from Mount Juliet, Tennessee - the first female and youngest overall winner. Erika Jo's self-titled album debuted at #5 on the country album charts, but quickly fell out of the top ten, selling just over 118,000 copies in the year following its release. The video for the first single, "I Break Things", initially received heavy rotation on CMT and GAC, but the song was largely ignored by country radio and only reached #53 on the Billboard Magazine country charts. One subsequent single ("I'm Not Lisa") was released, but it also failed to attract substantial attention. She was later dropped from the Universal South roster. Erika Jo occasionally makes concert appearances and has become a semi-regular performer on (but not a member of) the Grand Ole Opry since her victory.

The 2006 winner was 20-year-old Chris Young. His self-titled debut album was released on October 3, 2006 and debuted at #3 on the Billboard country chart, although it has yet to generate any top-40 singles.

The 2007 winner of Nashville Star was 29-year-old Angela Hacker from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, who finished just ahead of her younger brother, Zac. It was the first time that siblings had competed, let alone finished in the top two. Following the season, Angela Hacker's album was only available at Wal-Mart causing it to not enter Billboard Magazine's Top 75 Country Albums chart.