Happy birthday to Kellie Pickler, who turns 26 on Thursday. A good present would be...a new record label?!
The American Idol veteran and her camp have confirmed that she's parted ways with Sony Music Nashville, where she started her career after placing sixth on the fifth season of AI.
Kellie Pickler
"Kellie's contract with Sony came to an end and they mutually decided not to renew," Pickler's manager explained to ABC News Radio this week.
Pickler's first album for Sony imprint BNA was Small Town Girl in 2006. Her last was 100 Proof, which was released in January of this year. She ranks as the 14th most successful American Idol alum of all time, according to a list compiled by Billboard--putting her one place ahead of 2011 country champ Scotty McCreery.
The "Tough" singer doesn't seem to be feeling too bad about the split. She spent her birthday week working for charity--namely, kicking off the third year of the ConAgra Foods Foundation Hunger-Free Summer program on Wednesday, where she visited Nashville's Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee and helped out as a volunteer. While there, she also debuted a special downloadable activity booklet that offers families a way to donate meals to needy kids, while teaching children about the issue of hunger.
"This is an issue that is very important to me," Pickler told us at Yahoo! Music, explaining that for every download and/or share of the booklet, ConAgra Foods Foundation will donate the equivalent of one meal to Feeding America--so kids in our own country won't have to go hungry.
You may not be able to offer Kellie a new record label for her birthday, but we're sure she'd love it just as much if you checked out the charitable booklet yourself. Go ahead and click here for more information--it's totally free to download and share. Happy birthday Kellie!
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