Toledo Blade Cover Boy and Cover Story: Clay Aiken

Courtesy Toledo Blade Magazine.

The Jukebox Tour and Clay are featured on the cover of today's edition of Toledo Blade, a Toledo newsmagazine.

Something for everyone: Clay Aiken covers Top 40 tunes from the '50s to today
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Kicking off a one-two set of concerts by American Idol stars, 2003 runner-up Clay Aiken comes to town for a concert at the Toledo Zoo amphitheater on Tuesday, followed by 2002 champ Kelly Clarkson at the SeaGate Convention Centre Aug. 22.



Aiken, who lost in Idol's second season to Ruben Studdard by a margin of less than 1 percent, is covering a lot of ground with The Jukebox Summer Tour 2005.

The show will feature 100 Top 40 songs from the 1950s to the present, with many strung together in medley form.

A lot of the tunes were on the charts long before Aiken was born in 1978, but said he enjoys music from all eras.

"I thought it would be cool to sing a bunch of covers and relate to everybody," he said in a press release. "There will be songs my mom likes and my grandparents like, and there are a lot of people who love the music of the '70s. I like the '80s, and we're going to have a lot of fun with songs from the '90s."

Among the songs in the show will be several golden oldies with which Aiken is already associated, including Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire." He's also planning Motown medley and doo-wop medleys and will shake things up with a series of Elvis Presley classics.

Aiken, 26, of Raleigh, N.C., had always planned to be a teacher and was working with autistic children when a mother of a student talked him into trying out for American Idol.

"I had my life planned out until I was 50 years old," he said. "I was going to be a teacher and maybe a principal at some point."

But the mother of one of his students heard him sing during a visit to her home and persuaded Aiken to give the Fox TV show a try.

The first time he auditioned, in Charlotte, N.C., Aiken didn't get picked. But he tried again in Atlanta and wound up in the finals with Studdard. Although he lost by a whisker, the charismatic young singer was quickly signed by RCA Records.

Aiken's 2003 debut disc, "Measure of a Man," sold more than 2 million copies and produced the hit song "Invisible." Last fall, he released the holiday album "Merry Christmas With Love," which shipped more than a million units.

Aiken is currently working on his third studio album and is serving as national ambassador for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, for which he visited the tsunami-ravaged region of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and war-torn northern Uganda.

Clay Aiken will be in concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Toledo Zoo amphitheater. Tickets are $39.50 and $47.50 from Ticketmaster. Information: 419-474-1333.

Contact David Yonke at:
dyonke@theblade.com or
419-724-6154.