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Clay Aiken

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Television viewers' first glimpse of Aiken came during the audition episodes at the beginning of American Idol's second season. The show's judges first saw Aiken as a nerdy type unlikely to be any kind of idol, but after hearing him sing Heatwave's "Always and Forever" decided to advance him to the next round. The clip of the judges' surprise during this audition performance was replayed many times over the course of the competition.
Aiken made it to the round-of-32 before being cut from the show, but he was invited to return for the "Wild Card" round; his performance of Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" sent him on to the final 12 as the viewer's choice. While noted for his performance of ballads, such as Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire", his upbeat performances, including The Foundations' "Build Me Up Buttercup", were also appreciated. Aiken received enough votes every week to keep him out of the bottom three. Part of his appeal was his "geek to chic" transformation in appearance. "I looked like Opie," Aiken said to People magazine regarding his appearance at his American Idol audition in 2002.[12] He replaced his glasses with contact lenses and agreed to let the show's stylists change his hair style.[13] With longer, flat ironed, spiky hair and a penchant for wearing striped shirts, Aiken had established a trademark look by the final American Idol season 2 show.
On 21 May 2003, Aiken came in a close second to Studdard, who won the contest by 130,000 votes out of more than 24,000,000 votes cast. The result was controversial, as some hypothesized that Idol's voting system was incapable of handling the number of attempted calls.[14] 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.[15] Though officially Aiken was the show's "first runner-up," he has since gone on to be the second season's best-selling star.
Rolling Stone magazine featured Aiken on the cover of their July 2003 issue. In the cover article Aiken said, "One thing I've found of people in the public eye, either you're a womanizer or you've got to be gay. Since I'm neither one of those, people are completely concerned about me."[16] In subsequent interviews he has expressed frustration over continued questions about his sexual orientation, telling People magazine in 2006, "It doesn't matter what I say. People are going to believe what they want."[17]
Aiken made a surprise appearance on the final show of American Idol season 5, when failed auditioner Michael Sandecki returned to the show to receive a "Golden Idol" award for Best Impersonator for his Clay Aiken-like appearance. Aiken appeared without introduction in a well-tailored designer suit and longer, darker hair with bangs, looking so different that many did not recognize him until he began to sing "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me."[18][19]
Aiken currently provides narration for the second season of the American Idol Rewind series.
Music
On October 14, 2003, Aiken released his first solo album, Measure of a Man, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was, with 613,000 copies sold in its first week, the highest-selling debut for a solo artist in 10 years, and to date the highest debut of any Idol. The album received RIAA Double Platinum certification November 17, 2003 (a Double Platinum plaque was presented to Aiken by Clive Davis on October 22, 2003, during Good Morning America). The album spawned both the hit single "Invisible" and his first hit song, "This Is the Night" (both co-written by British songwriter Chris Braide). 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.
On November 16, 2004, Aiken released a holiday album titled Merry Christmas With Love, which set a new record for fastest-selling holiday album in the Soundscan era (since 1991). The album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 and tied Céline Dion's record for the highest debut by a holiday album in the history of Billboard magazine. "Merry Christmas With Love" sold over 1,000,000 copies retail in 6 weeks and was the best-selling holiday album of 2004, receiving RIAA Platinum certification on Jan. 6, 2005.
Aiken's third album, A Thousand Different Ways, was released September 19, 2006. He worked on the album under the guidance of Canadian producer and A&R executive Jaymes Foster.[22] The album contains ten cover songs, and four new songs, one of which Aiken co-wrote.[23] Clive Davis is credited with the cover concept.[24] One additional song, "Lover All Alone", written by Aiken and David Foster, is included with the album on iTunes. Debuting at #2 on the Billboard chart, A Thousand Different Ways made Aiken the fourth artist ever to have his first three albums debut in the Top 5 and scan over 200,000 in the first week.[25]
Aiken's fourth album, All is Well (an EP of four Christmas songs), was released exclusively to Walmart on November 28, 2006[26] and was released to iTunes as a digital download in December 2007.
Aiken stated in an April 2007 interview with People that he is looking at making a new album soon, and at his May 2007 Kimmel appearance, he mentioned that he was in Los Angeles interviewing producers for the new album. In a February 2008 interview with People he said "We're hoping the next album will be out about May 6." [28]
Broadway
On January 18, 2008 Aiken made his Broadway debut when he joined the cast of "Monty Python's Spamalot", playing one of the leads, Sir Robin, in the Tony Award-winning musical directed by Mike Nichols. In addition to Sir Robin, Aiken plays the 1st Sentry, the 1st Guard and the Brother Maynard roles. Aiken is slated to stay with the production through May 4.[29]