Happy New Year’s Eve to All

I hope you have a wonderful celebration as we see the end of 2013 and beginning of a brand new year!

Today is the last 2013 Year in Review.  I have had fun going back and reading about 2013.  I thought I remembered all that Clay Aiken had done in his public role…but I did forget a few events and  didn’t remember everything in detail. Yet…here we go:

July 29 – August 25, 2013 – Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Ogunquit Playhouse – Maine

On July 12^th, the following was posted at CANN:

Clay Aiken to Star in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoatat the Ogunquit Playhouse

The Ogunquit Playhouse is thrilled to announce that multi-platinum recording artist, American Idol and Broadway star Clay Aiken will portray Joseph in the upcoming production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s beloved family musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on stage July 31 through August 25.

This was the beginning of one of the most exciting months in the past 10 years!

Clay fans seemed excited, but they were not alone.  The town of Ogunquit seemed to love Clay and his up-coming appearance in their beautiful town.  Twitter was full of exciting posts from different businesses in the town and the historic Ogunquit Playhouse kept everyone up-dated on what was happening.

Clay was outstanding on stage.  It was amazing hearing him sing Close Every Door and Any Dream Will Do and watching his face on stage let everyone know he was an accomplished actor.

But besides the performance, Clay and the fans were introduced to so much more.  We got to know some amazing actors who were a part of the cast…Keala Settle, Matthew Ragas, Kory Geller, Ken Arpino, Nathan Chang…and many more.  We got to “help” them on their first attempts at twitter and hear about their dinners and sightseeing in the area.

We learned about Lobster Rolls, Perkins Cove, The Clam Shack, Marginal Way, the Nubble Lighthouse and much, much more.

And…we learned that Clay Aiken belongs on the stage.  He made the musical a special event and brought in more revenue to the Playhouse than any other run during the summer.

December 19, 2013 – The Arsenio Hall Show – Hollywood, CA.

Clay Aiken was a guest on the Arsenio Hall Show.  He sang This Christmas and talked about the controversial comments made by “Duck Dynasty” star, Phil Robertson.

When asked about his future plans, Clay said  that he has been using his voice but that he would be helping/focusing more on those whose voices haven’t been heard.

The next day, it was amazing to see the amount of press there was for this visit with Arsenio.

I did a simple google search for Clay Aiken.  I was shocked!  I asked google to give me mentions in the last 24 hours… Did you know that there are hundreds of articles about Clay and his opinion about The Duck Dynasty controversy?  I went through 10 pages and skimmed through a few more and finally stopped!

The diversity of the sites was interesting…it seems everyone wants to know what Clay Aiken had to say!

I thought it was so nice to learn that his friend, Meryl Dandridge was backstage with Clay.  It’s always nice to see he has such supportive friends.

What else did Clay do in 2013?  I’m sure he was busy most of the year, but a few of the public things he did were:

Wrote the introduction to a new book titled Starry-Eyed.

Walked the Red-carpet at the official opening of the new musical, After Midnight.  After the show, he went backstage and met with his friends Fantasia and Dule Hill.  He even enjoyed the show so much, he returned a few weeks later to see it again!

Quiana Parler and Clay broadcast a 3 hour radio show pilot.  They certainly had a chemistry and friendship that showed up when they worked together

Clay was the Master of Ceremonies at the 10^th Anniversary Champions Gala for The National Inclusion Project.  He was on stage both nights and kept the evenings going by introducing the guests, leading the auctions and sharing his beautiful voice in song.   Overall, the weekend of events raised over $400,000 for the National Inclusion Project.

 So…we have come to the end of 2013 – It was an interesting year and full of different types of events.  You can always count on Clay Aiken to make your life just a little bit better!

I wish I could tell you what is next.  According to Clay:

“There are going to be some changes coming in 2014.”

“I’ve learned, to fly, you have to want to leave the ground! And that’s just what we’re going to do!”

The only message I can give to Clay is easy…

Always and Forever!