Idol Chatter & Voice Views

If the strategy was to use the new season of American Idol to generate excitement about the debut album from last year’s winner … well, it didn’t work.

Candice Glover’s “Music Speaks” landed at number 14 on the Billboard 200 when the album chart was released today.

Candice Glover’s debut album, Music Speaks, hit stores and download sites Tuesday.

But the news gets worse. Candice’s album sold just 19,000 copies, according to Billboard.

That’s the lowest total ever for an Idol winner and less than half the number of first-week sales for Lee’s 2010 debut.

And Idol constantly likes to compare itself to those other TV singing shows, proclaiming it’s the only one to produce stars.

Hmm, that might have been true in the past, but …

The last two Voice winners to release albums were Cassadee Pope and Danielle Bradbery. Their first-week sales checked in at 43,000 and 41,000, respectively.

“Music Speaks” was well received by critics.

But Candice had several factors working against her: Idol’s declining ratings, lack of interest in the summer tour and the lag time between her victory and the release of her album.

Originally, the plan called for Candice to release an album quicker than any Idol had before.

Instead, the opposite happened. The nine-month lag between her victory and album release was the longest in Idol history.

The previous longest: Eight months between when Kelly Clarkson won Idol and released “Thankful,” which had first week sales of nearly 300,000.

And I haven’t heard a peep about a major-label debut album for last year’s runner-up, Kree Harrison.

Here are where previous Idol finalists landed on the charts with their debut albums.

Season One: Kelly Clarkson, #1; Justin Guarini, #20

Season Two: Ruben Studdard, #1; Clay Aiken, #1

Season Three: Fantasia, #8; Diana DeGarmo, #52

Season Four: Carrie Underwood, #2; Bo Bice, #4

Season Five: Taylor Hicks, #2; Katharine McPhee, #2

Season Six: Jordin Sparks, #10; Blake Lewis, #10

Season Seven: David Cook, #3; David Archuleta, #2

Season Eight: Kris Allen, #11; Adam Lambert, #3.

Season Nine: Lee DeWyze, #19; Crystal Bowersox, #28.

Season 10: Scotty McCreery, #1; Lauren Alaina, #5

Season 11: Phillip Phillips, #4, Jessica Sanchez, #26