Chris Sligh

Charles Christopher Sligh (born April 13, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, producer and pastor who was a finalist on the sixth season of American Idol, finishing in tenth place.

He has released 14 albums since 2001 as a solo artist, with his band Half Past Forever or with his former church's musical entity, Shoreline Music.

He also starred in October Baby.

Sligh was born in Madison, Tennessee, to Chuck and Susan Sligh, Baptist missionaries to American military servicemen.

The family moved to Durham, North Carolina, when Sligh was three years old but soon moved to Wiesbaden, Germany, where Chuck ministered to American troops.

Chuck Sligh is an accomplished guitarist and passed his love of music to his three sons, of whom Sligh is the oldest.

Although Sligh has been singing since high school he grew up listening only to classical music in a regimented upbringing.

Sligh began his college study in pre-law at Pensacola Christian College in Florida.

He transferred to Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, in his sophomore year intending to major in music.

Despite having no previous formal instruction, Sligh progressed rapidly in the school's vocal performance program; he was invited to audition both for the Juilliard School and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Sligh was expelled from Bob Jones after he broke school rules.

He then attended North Greenville University but left shy a few credits of earning a music degree.

Over the next few years he put several bands together, leading eventually to the creation of the band Half Past Forever.

Sligh was the frontman and guitarist for his band which was formed with a member of a defunct, local South Carolina band.

In 2006, they recorded the album, Take a Chance on Something Beautiful, which was produced over a few months in Sligh's home studio.

After Sligh was voted off American Idol in March 2007, the band signed with record label Brash Music.

Sligh produced, and wrote or co-wrote all of the album's seventeen songs.

Jesusfreakhideout.com music critic Scott Fryberger reviewed the CD on July 7 saying, "''Although a good mixture of adult contemporary and rock, Half Past Forever still isn't quite a must-buy album. It remains, however, a very good debut for the band. I wouldn't be surprised to hear them on mainstream radio stations in the near future.

On the other hand, critic Christa Bannister at Christianity Today.com reviewed the album, giving the album a solid 4/5 stars, saying "While the project is a little long by today's standards, there's actually not a throwaway in the bunch...The biggest surprise lies in the varied production, which is especially impressive for an indie band. They go all out with strings on the aforementioned "In a Moment," while faster songs like "Naïve" and "Closer" are reminiscent of The Strokes' latest project, with a more raw, stripped-down indie feel that offers nice contrast to overproduced pop."

Sligh auditioned in Birmingham, Alabama singing "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal, after which Paula Abdul gave him a standing ovation and said, "I like you very much."

American Idol judges laughed at his ambition "to make David Hasselhoff cry," a reference to Hasselhoff's crying when Taylor Hicks won season 5.

Sligh was an early favorite of the judges, as all 3 judges spoke of a guy with curly hair who did not look like your typical American Idol.

Abdul compared him to Penn Jillette from the duo of Penn & Teller, to whom he bears some resemblance.

However, by the third week of the semi-finals, after Sligh sang "We All Wanna Be Loved" by DC Talk, the judges criticized him more sharply.

During the top 24 week, Sligh showed his extensive knowledge of American Idol trivia, which he claimed to have learned while researching for hours at his job in South Carolina.

Simon Cowell claimed that Sligh's performance of "Typical" by the band Mutemath was "...like being at some weird student gig" and told Sligh that he felt like Sligh was there more on personality than vocal skill.

Sligh retorted by saying, "Just because I don't sound like Il Divo or the Teletubbies doesn't mean that I don't have a good voice" alluding to Cowell's creation of the classical boy band Il Divo and his work in making an album featuring the Teletubbies.

Randy Jackson and Abdul cheered at the supposed insult.

Many fans were left bewildered by Cowell's dour reaction, which Sligh and Ryan Seacrest later cleared up in saying the dour expression was aimed at Seacrest.

Sligh was eliminated from American Idol on March 28, 2007 finishing in tenth-place.

While he sang his last song, he told Phil Stacey "You owe me 50 bucks," referencing their bet that he would be eliminated that show.

The next day, Sligh said that he had not sought to win the competition and that he had considered quitting the show two weeks before, but stayed on the show in order to make it into the top ten so that he could go on tour with the other top ten finalists.

Later he commented that his wanting to quit was similar to anyone working a job and feeling like they could not do it anymore.

He also addressed the rumor that he never wanted to win, saying, "I never set my sights on winning because it would've driven me crazy...I just focused on small goals, the first of which was to make the top 10 so I could go on tour."

Auditions/Hollywood

In November 2007, Sligh stated that he had signed a solo deal with Brash Music, an Atlanta-based independent label that is distributed through Warner Bros., Alternative Distribution Alliance, and Word Distribution.

The album titled Running Back to You was produced by Brown Bannister, Stephen Leiweke and Will Owsley.

Sligh's album was released on May 6, 2008 by Brash Music.

The first official single, "Empty Me," was added to radio playlists February 22, 2008 and reached number six on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs Charts.

The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at 190 with 4,000 copies sold the first week, the top Christian debut for the week.