Award-winning songwriter Kara DioGuardi, who’s penned hits for many chart-topping female pop stars — Gwen Stefani, Avril Lavigne, Ashlee Simpson and Kelly Clarkson, among them — has joined the Warner Bros. Records A&R team, though an official staff position has yet to be firmed up. She officially joined the label’s A&R team a couple months ago, according to an insider, and is reporting to Warner chairman and CEO Tom Whalley. DioGuardi’s main focus is on signing pop acts, and one of her first projects is 21-year-old newcomer Tynisha Keli, whose look is the perfect blend of Lindsay Lohan, Ashley Tisdale, and Britney Spears (all singers whom DioGuardi has worked with in the past), but with pipes that seem much more promising. (Check out her YouTube channel here.)
Named BMI’s 2007 Pop Songwriter of the Year, DioGuardi tried to launch her own career as an artist a year earlier, teaming with the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart for a high-concept collaboration called Platinum Weird that never quite caught on. She’s also tried her hand at television, serving as a judge on the short-lived American Idol knock-off show, The One. Rumor has it DioGuardi was also on the short-list to be an expert on MTV’s Rock the Cradle, another vocal competition series featuring the children of famous — and mostly forgotten — singers like Kenny Loggins, Eddie Money, and Olivia Newton John. That show is scheduled to premiere on April 3. A rep for Warner Bros. corporate could not be reached for comment.
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