Tonight, American Idol kicks off its 11th season. It has been reported that the season will show 8 audition shows…WOW…that’s a lot of “Bad” singers.
As part of the promotion for the season, many of the popular Internet sites are posting articles about former American Idol finalists. The following articles mention my favorite American Alum:
From MTV:
‘American Idol’: Where Are Katharine McPhee, Leah LaBelle Now?
We also check in with Justin Guarini, Ruben Studdard, Constantine Maroulis and more ‘Idol’ alumni before season 11 kicks off.
Season Two
The One You Know: Clay Aiken can be seen in promos for the upcoming season of “Celebrity Apprentice,” accusing a teammate of being patronizing — all in the name of charity. Although his last few albums haven’t made a big dent in pop culture, Clay still remains the fourth-best-selling “Idol” contestant ever, right behind the holy trinity. (That’s Underwood/Clarkson/Daughtry, obviously.)
The Hollywood Reporter:
‘American Idol’ Game Changers: Adam Lambert, David Cook, Clay Aiken Among the Top 10
With season 11 upon us, The Hollywood Reporter looks back at some of the defining moments that shaped the show we know today.
1. Runner-up Clay Aiken Outsells Winner Ruben Studdard
Season two was all about surprises, but who could have predicted that the fashion-challenged Clay Aiken would not only survive elimination but rise all the way to the top two? On finale night, 24 million votes were cast, but Studdard squeaked through, besting Aiken by just 134,000. Soon after, Idol fans started voting with their wallets, and Aiken’s Measure of a Man CD debuted at no. 1 with 613,000 copies sold in its first week out, easily outselling Studdard’s debut, Soulful, which tallied 400,000. Aiken’s retail victory immediately set a goal and standard for future Idol contestants that didn’t get the celebratory shower of confetti, and it put in place the oft-repeated consolation, “You don’t have to win to be a winner.” (Michele Amabile Angermiller)
From Rolling Stone:
Take a trip down memory lane with our Clay Aiken photo gallery:
Please check in later…I will be updating this article as new information is posted.
I'm loving all the new articles with the older pics of Clay. Being newer to the fandom, I'm enjoying them immensly! Thanks!
I pretty much stopped watching AI because of the auditions – how many truly talented people were not given a chance so that they could put an obviously horible person in front of the judges so that they could be mocked and ridiculed?
BUT it's always great when Clay Aiken is recognized as one of two men who made Idol IDOL. Thanks!
Do not watch American Idol any more. It just seems stale and really can't stand the show..period. I, too, think it is cruel to show the people on the auditions as if they are some kind of a freak.
But, I will take any good articles and pictures of Clay they want to put out…whether AI is sincere about them or not.
I haven’t watched AI for many years, but I do like that Clay gets some good PR each year.
Thanks for the 3 links!!
Shelley just called me — somebody in one of her old Yahoo groups sent out the news that Rolling Stone magazine — the online version, at least — just last night, 6:00PM EST, posted, or posted updates to, Clay's Gallery of photos. She was all excited because the very first pic, on the title page, is the one where he's looking at the huge poster (it totally hides Ryan) of himself w/the copy of the portrait-on-red at the top and "Clay is my AmerAiken Idol" on the bottom, letters professionally done. Clay was saying, "Looks like you can see up my nose!" (He's still saying that — did you watch YT of T&T banter at Ashland, at the end when he's thanking us, "…and the gal with the binoculars looking UP my nose!", waves hand, rotfl.)
It's a great poster and was all over the place for awhile, and it's hers! She and her kids did it, Jessika was also a huge fan — but RS has the wrong date, this happened on a show, right after he had been judged and had walked over to join Ryan at those stupid stools.
She gave it to me to keep, either when she had to move in with her daughter or when the family moved to Arizona, it's still in my closet, LOL. I should get it out and use it somewhere. I'd like sometime somehow to get a pic of her telling him on Kimmel why we love him (he was so cute!), put it with that poster, and maybe send it to him or give it to him at a M&G (if he does another tour!) or something. Any ideas?
Maybe you already knew about the RS Clay Gallery, it's probly been out there since the get-go, but I didn't… If you go to rollingstone.com and search for Clay Aiken it comes up with 133 hits or something, mine came up with "most relevent" but nothing about pix or new stuff, so I changed it to "most recent" and he came up second (the third most recent was an article about Dee on Celeb Apprentice, going to check on that one now). It's just titled Clay Aiken – Gallery and the pic used to illustrate the section is NOT the poster one. The only way I knew it was the same group of pix is by the date, Shelley told me it was "posted" (I think just updated) yesterday at 6:00PM and that's how the gallery was labeled.
20 pix in all now. Hope they just added to and didn't dump any! They track him pretty well from AI2 through 2005, then nothing until a pic of Spamalot, then Timeless Tour, his NatlAnth sing for NHL at RBC this Jan (did I know about that?? Need to find the YT!), and now one of Celeb App, tho he's way in the back and to one side (just like our gala pic, LOL). There wasn't a way to email the link so I'm putting it here for you. At the actual start of the gallery is the poster pic and it should have the heading I show.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photos/clay-aik…
PHOTOS
Clay Aiken Through the Years
Keeping up with the 'American Idol' favorite
Kathy
It is fun to remember all the fun moments of being a Clay fan.
The link to the Rolling Stone pictures is the 3rd link in this article. Sorry you didn't see it!!
Thanks for all the info!!
It's nice seeing all the Clay mentions every year as the next season of Idol begins. I watched tonight and there were some very good singers, but no one had the wow factor for me.
I agree with the others – do watch it some only because others in the house watch it. My interest isn't there anymore. Now if they have something about Clay on I will be right in front of that screen!!
It seeems like a whole different show – not as family friendly either – especially after last year.