Clay Aiken - Some background info

Biography: As the second-place contestant on Fox TV’s second season of American Idol, vocalist Clay Aiken wowed television audiences with his Southern charm, sweet demeanor, and powerful tenor voice, all of which combined to make him a pop star.

As the second-place contestant on Fox TV’s second season of American Idol, vocalist Clay Aiken wowed television audiences with his Southern charm, sweet demeanor, and powerful tenor voice, all of which combined to make him a pop star.

Clay Aiken is an American pop singer who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003.

Although his American Idol activities temporarily delayed his academic pursuits, Aiken completed his course work while on tour and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in special education in December 2003.

Based on album sales surpassed only by Idol winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, Aiken has become the most successful male and the most successful runner-up in that show’s history.

Clay Aiken was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina.

That same month, Aiken’s debut single, “This Is the Night,” made history by shooting to number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

“I thought if we could find songs along those lines, that deal with my life over the past five years and what I’ve learned from my experiences, it would be a great concept for an album,” Aiken says.

The album debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart, giving Merry Christmas with Love the biggest debut week sales figures for a Christmas album in SoundScan history.

In the years following his American Idol appearance, Aiken has launched eight tours, authored a New York Times best-selling book Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life with Allison Glock, and was the executive producer for a 2004 televised Christmas special, A Clay Aiken Christmas.

Since shooting to stardom on the second season of American Idol, the 29-year-old Raleigh, NC native with the powerhouse voice has become an international pop phenomenon who has sold six million copies of his three best-selling albums: the double-platinum Measure of A Man, 2004’s holiday CD Merry Christmas With Love , and the gold-certified A Thousand Different Ways — a 2006 collection of 10 covers and four originals that earned Aiken the distinction of being the fourth artist ever to have his first three albums debut in the Top 5 on the Billboard chart.

Justin Guarini, the runner-up on the first American Idol, released his album ten months after the competition ended and two months after Kelly Clarkson, the winner of the competition, released her debut.

Just Found The Video Of It, From When You Where On Tour, Yesterday-And I Absolutly Fell In Love With The Song.

Later that year, Aiken won the Fan’s Choice Award at the American Music Awards ceremony, and his CD single “This Is the Night/Bridge Over Troubled Water” won the Billboard award for the Best-Selling Single of 2003.

He studied special education instead, and set his sights on attending Virginia’s College of William & Mary for a master’s degree in administration.

On My Way Here was released May 6, 2008 on the RCA label.

I’m Listening To Your CD Right NowWow!

In an interview prior to the start of the fifth season of American Idol, Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed for the first time that Aiken had led the fan voting every week from the Wild Card week to the finale, when the possibly-random voting result gave Studdard the win.

A cast of actors, dancers and back-up singers traveled with the tour, and members of local theater groups were added in each venue for smaller, non-speaking roles and crowd scenes.

The message of the lyrics — how the lessons we learn while growing up shape us into who we become as adults — struck such a deep chord with Aiken that it wound up inspiring the theme of his new collection.

Once again, the little guy with the big voice made a big splash, and The Measure of a Man sold 613,000 copies while climbing to number one on Billboard’s Top 200 during its first week of release.

He landed a deal with RCA through Simon Fuller’s 19 Recordings Limited within weeks of the show’s finale.

Clay Aiken is my favorite male singer and male entertainer.

He sang The Star-Spangled Banner on opening night of the 2003 World Series and appeared in numerous television specials during the winter of 2003, including Disney ’s Christmas Day Parade and the Nick At Nite Holiday Special, where he sang the “Little Drummer Boy /Peace on Earth” with Bing Crosby via special effects.

His rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” sewed him a spot among Americans’ hearts, and although he finished second to Ruben Studdard, Aiken’s loss was not taken lightly.

It’s that commitment that drives everything Aiken does, even if it means recording an album by day and starring in a Broadway show by night.

He found his interest in special education while directing YMCA children’s camps as a teenager, and at age 19, he served as a substitute teacher for a classroom of students with autism at Brentwood Elementary School in Raleigh.

Three demo albums of Aiken’s vocals were created before American Idol with the aid of studio time given as a birthday gift by his mother: a cassette called Look What Love Has Done , a cassette and CD entitled Redefined , and a CD that combined some songs from each of the previous demos: “Look What Love Has Done, Vol 2″.

Born on November 30, 1978, Aiken began singing at an early age, and was confident enough to perform the Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers classic “Islands in the Stream” at a local high school dance by age five.

That 21-date tour ended on December 22, 2007 in Merrillville, Indiana.