Clay Aiken
Clay Aiken ( born November 30, 1978 in Raleigh, North Carolina as Clayton Holmes Grissom ) is an American pop / rock singer, who in the finale of the second season of American Idol lost to Ruben Studdard in 2003.
- 4.1 albums
- 4.2 Singles
American Idol
Aiken qualified for the theme shows as a third party of his group. Only Studdard, the later winner of the competition, and the future third parties, Kimberley Locke, were officially better than him.
In the theme shows he developed together with Studdard the favorites for the title, which on 21 May 2003 also proved to be true, as they faced each other in the final. Aiken sang in the theme shows many ballads.
Studdard won the final with a narrow margin of 130,000 votes, with a total of 24 million calls. The result has been criticized because the lines were often busy and you could not therefore always vote. For this reason, some demanded that one should count the number of attempted calls, which were higher in Aiken. The makers of American Idol did not bow to the criticism.
Clay Aiken has emerged as the most successful artist of the second American Idol Season.
Career
2003-2005: Measure of a Man / Merry Christmas with Love
Aiken's debut single, Bridge over Troubled Water / This Is the Night ( Aldo Nova / Gary Burr / Chris Braide ), published on 10 June 2003, was honored by the Recording Industry Association of America with platinum. The single rose from 0 to 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot 100 Single Sales. The song became the fastest-selling single by Elton John's Candle in the Wind in 1997 and the biggest selling single of 2003.
On 14 October 2003 his debut album Measure of a Man, which 200 got in from 0 to 1 on the Billboard with over 600,000 CDs sold appeared. By August 2006, over 2,750,000 copies of the album have sold, which means double platinum. The record has been given to him by Clive Davis in the U.S. show Good Morning America. From February to April 2004, he was with Kelly Clarkson on tour, the Independent tour. He recorded a duet called Without You by Kimberley Locke, which was released in May 2003 on Kimberley Locke's debut album. His second tour was called The Not a Tour 2004 Summer solo tour, which took him from July to September 2004 to 50 cities in the United States. The tour was a sponsor of Disney.
A third tour took place in November and December 2004. It was called The Joyful Noise Tour and was performed in 28 cities. The tour was designed to Christmas theme, due to the second album Merry Christmas with Love, for the Torrie Zito wrote the arrangements and which sold over a million copies and was certified platinum. The tour was sponsored by the Ronald McDonald House. For the tour, a thirty- piece orchestra was set. In some cities, Aiken was supported by local orchestras, for example, in Atlanta from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
In February 2005, Aiken played the role of Kenny in a single episode in the comedy series Scrubs -. The Jukebox Tour was the title of this fifth tour, Aiken led by the United States and Canada from July to September 2005. There were covers from the 50s to 90s, a few songs from his debut album, as well as some new songs, which he tested in front of audience, played.
2006: A Thousand Different Ways
On 24 August 2006, announced in a press release his record company, among other things, that his debut album have achieved three times platinum. His new album, A Thousand Different Ways came to the U.S. stores on 19 September 2006. In the first week, Aiken was able to sell more than 200,000 albums and increased from 0 to 2, thus he was able to place his third album in the top 5 on the Billboard 200, which so far only managed a few artists in the United States.
Private life
Clay Aiken is now father of a son who was born on 8 August 2008 after artificial insemination. Only a month later, Aiken outed in an interview with Entertainment Online and freely admitted his homosexuality.
Discography
These tables show the maximum placements of singles / albums in the U.S. charts, and awards from the RIAA for sales.