Candice Coleman, Rebecca Bond, Jacob John……….do any of those names ring a bell?? Along with Jennifer Fuentes and Hadas, they joined Clay, Ruben and Kimberly as contestants in Group II in the second season of American Idol.

Group 2

It was February 11, 2003 and the talented group of singers had one song to sing before being critiqued by the three judges, Simon, Randy, and Paula.

Wearing a black suit and a lime green shirt, Clay Aiken was the first performer of the evening. He sang a wonderful rendition of “Open Arms” which was originally recorded by Journey. The judges were complimentary to Clay about his singing and Paula even suggested that she wanted a date with Clay.

Clay Aiken

While watching the episode in its entirety, there were some things that stood out. First, the judges loved Ruben and Kimberly and seemed to forget about the first wonderful performance of the evening. Secondly, there were some forgettable singers in the group. No one was horrible, but the star quality was missing.

It was nice to see Clay’s mother and brother Brett there to support him along with the family and friends of all the contestants.

Besides Clay’s wonderful singing, the highlight of the episode was seeing the singers in a commercial for COKE. Each of the singers were boxing with a punching bag. There was a picture of Simon on Clay’s bag and the commercial ends with Clay ripping the picture off the bag, throwing it on the ground and stomping on it.

Clay is listening

A search on Google didn’t find any new mentions of the forgettable contestants except for Jennifer Fuentes. She joined the Ringling Bros. -Barnum & Bailey Circus in 2007.

Enjoy the clip of Clay Aiken’s performance of Open Arms and the judges comments.

Open Arms
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbohpwwdheY

Judges Comments
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WgRue63WxY