Paul McDonald

Paul McDonald (born William Paul McDonald) is an American singer-songwriter from Huntsville, Alabama, who as of 2011, resides in Nashville, Tennessee. McDonald placed 8th on the tenth season of American Idol and since 2005, he has been the lead singer of the band Hightide Blues, renamed The Grand Magnolias in 2010.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McDonald_(musician)

"Paul McDonald (born William Paul McDonald) is an American singer-songwriter from Huntsville, Alabama, who as of 2011 resides in Nashville. McDonald placed 8th on the tenth season of American Idol and since 2005, he has been the lead singer of the band Hightide Blues which was renamed The Grand Magnolias in 2010.

McDonald was born to Susan and David McDonald, in Auburn / Opelika. His father is a clinical psychologist and his mother teaches occupational therapy at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. McDonald was raised in Huntsville, Alabama. He is a graduate of Huntsville High School, where he also played wide receiver on the varsity football team. He was in the school's play, "The Wizard of Oz" which was directed by Mike Chappell.

Career
The Grand Magnolias
In August 2010, McDonald and his band members moved to Nashville and launched a campaign to let their fans choose a new name for the band. The group's first album under its new name, entitled The Grand Magnolias, was released in 2011. The songs were written by McDonald and band member Jonathan Pears and produced by Dan Hannon and Ken Coomer. The album has seen a boost in sales since Paul McDonald's appearance on American Idol,[1] and it reached number twelve on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and had sold 9,000 copies by April 27, 2011.[2] iTunes pulled the album from its store, without explanation, and the sales dropped off 60% from the previous week. A week later the album returned, again without explanation.[3]

When the band learned that McDonald had made it through to the Hollywood round they put together a content release campaign to maximize the exposure from the show.[4]

American Idol
On January 27, 2011, McDonald received a golden ticket to compete in Hollywood from judges Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson, and made it into the Top 24[5] by singing an original song, "American Dreams." He was one of ten candidates chosen as a finalist based on public voting.[6] Thirteen competed in the finals.

Since entering the competition, McDonald has made use of the social networking site Twitter to communicate with his fans and promote his band, The Grand Magnolias. The album also debuted on the Billboard Heatseekers chart before McDonald even sang in the show's semi-final round.[7] He was the first 2011 Idol hopeful to reach 50,000 followers on his newly created official American Idol Twitter account. McDonald continues to be one of the most popular American Idol Season 10 competitors on the social networking site.[8][9]

McDonald was eliminated from the show on April 14, 2011, finishing in eighth place."-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McDonald_(musician)