National Post Article

This article appeared in Canada's National Post (equivilent to USA Today, NY Times...) newspaper as well as its affilates the Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Province, Calgary Herald, and more...

Clay Aiken's Christmas show bespeaks his confidence
Idol star gets in the Christmas spirit

Clay Aiken loves Christmas. "It's a Christmas show!" he exclaims of the Joyful Noise Tour, which is 40 shows long, starting last night in Vancouver. "That's what we love to do. We're trying to start it early. Even though we are starting early, we try to get people in the spirit." Shouldn't be hard. If everybody survived Halloween, the shift into Christmas has already begun. The ornaments are out, the sales campaigns are prepared. Aiken's Christmas CD, Merry Christmas With Love, was the biggest-selling Christmas CD of 2004. He knows people need some uplifting news. What with tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes, Christmas can't come too soon. "Our tour went so well last year, we decided to do it again," Aiken explains. "Christmas is my favourite holiday. I would do this show all year." It's the singer's sixth tour since becoming the most famous runner-up on the TV series American Idol in 2003. He's made a few records, notably the single Bridge Over Troubled Waters, but a Christmas album so soon bespeaks his confidence. You might conclude he is very ambitious -- why else would he enter American Idol unless he had vision? "It's an opportunity to do what I've always wanted to do," observes the 25-year-old Raleigh, N.C., singer. "I don't ever want to get to the point where I think, 'Oh man, I wish I'd done this or had done that.' " Aiken is trying to keep the show as fresh as possible, programming his concert with actors and dancers who will tell a story written by Aiken himself. As well, he has shaken up the set list and will do some songs that aren't on his album. The Christmas theme, then might be a suprise, as it's usually a domain inhabited by singers with longer careers, but maybe it's Aiken's way of establishing his name. "Some people think we're not performers," he says. "...I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that show. At the same time, you want to be recognized as an individual, not the guy who was a runner-up on American Idol."