Kara DioGuardi

Kara Elizabeth DioGuardi (born December 9, 1970) is an American songwriter, record producer, music publisher, A&R executive, and singer.

She writes music primarily in the pop rock genre.

DioGuardi has worked with many popular artists; sales of albums on which her songs appear exceed 160 million worldwide.

Her mother Carol died in 1997 after a seven-year battle with ovarian cancer.

DioGuardi grew up in the Wilmot Woods section of suburban New Rochelle, New York, and attended elementary school at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School in Scarsdale, New York, followed by The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, before earning a degree in political science at Duke University.

After graduating from college, she worked for Billboard magazine as an assistant to Timothy White and Howard Lander and later as an advertising sales representative.

DioGuardi has a songwriting catalog of several hundred songs, of which 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 national and international commercial campaigns.

She wrote with Ashlee Simpson for her 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 that 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 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," 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 new releases.

In 2007, Dioguardi and Eurythmics member Dave Stewart wrote "Taking Chances" for Celine Dion.

It was released as the first single from the album Taking Chances in September 2007.

The song was a success around the world, peaking inside the top ten in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy and Switzerland.

It also peaked at number 40 on the UK Singles Chart, while on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, it reached number 54.

In 2008, she was appointed to the position of executive vice president of talent development at Warner Bros. Records, and has signed acts such as Jason Derulo and Iyaz.

Among DioGuardi's projects is the song "Not Meant to Be", which appears on Theory of a Deadman's 2008 album, Scars & Souvenirs.

DioGuardi 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.

This was her debut in the music video industry.

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 Meat Loaf.

Her father is former Republican Congressman and 2010 US Senate candidate Joe DioGuardi.

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.

DioGuardi is a 2011 NAMM Music for Life Award winner, 2009 NMPA Songwriter Icon Award winner, 2007 BMI Pop Songwriter of the Year, and has received 20 BMI Awards for co-writing the most performed songs on the radio.

DioGuardi served as a judge on American Idol for its eighth and ninth seasons.

In 2011, she was a head judge on the Bravo singer-songwriter competition series Platinum Hit.

DioGuardi was born in Ossining, New York.

She descends from the Arbëreshë (Albanian) minority from Italy.

After taking a break from writing she wrote on Kelly Clarkson's "Heartbeat Song" which was the first single from Clarkson's seventh studio album Piece by Piece (2015).

She wrote "Rebel Hearts" for Hilary Duff's Breathe In Breathe Out album in 2015.

DioGuardi has also written for films and television series.

She wrote "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.