New Interview From TIME for Kids

The kids' version of TIME magazine recently interviewed Clay.

Clay Aiken On a Mission
TFK Kid Reporter Avery Hardy talks with the music star about his work with UNICEF

On Halloween, I interviewed Clay Aiken about his job as a UNICEF Ambassador. As a UNICEF ambassador, American Idol runner-up and music star Aiken visited Indonesia and Uganda to help those in need. As a former teacher, Aiken is also interested in helping those with learning disabilities become more accepted in society. He is about to begin his new tour, Joyful Noise 2005. Clay carried his Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF box on Halloween and he hopes you did too!

Aiken visited Banda Aceh, Indonesia in March 2005. During the trip, he met with students affected by last year's tsunami.

TFK: How does one get named a UNICEF ambassador?
Aiken: I think UNICEF goes about and tries to find people who it feels matches...their philosophy and what it is they do. I was a teacher before I started singing and they were looking for someone to be an education ambassador. There was an obvious connection that I'd be an ambassador for education so they gave me a call and asked me if I'd be interested.

TFK: What are your responsibilities?
Aiken: My goal was to learn as much about UNICEF as I could, so that I could tell other people what UNICEF does. There are such important stories that happen all throughout the world. The UNICEF ambassador program takes advantage of people's celebrity because the news will talk to celebrities, even though half the time we don't have anything to talk about. They'll take advantage of us, because the news will talk to us and then ... we have an opportunity to talk about something that's important and we can tell people what UNICEF does.

TFK: On the UNICEF website, I watched your virtual fieldtrip through Uganda where the children are suffering from over a decade long civil war. If you could do one thing for the children of Uganda, what would it be?
Aiken: If I could do one thing for the children of Uganda it would be to end the civil war. The Lord's Resistance Army has been terrorizing kids in these villages and all of these districts in northern Uganda for the past eighteen years...when people are made aware of (the situation) hopefully they'll put pressure on their government to get this problem solved. Children who are ten years old, who are your age, have never known what it's like to sleep at home at night.


TFK: You visited Banda Aceh in Indonesia. What was the purpose of that visit?
Aiken: Banda Aceh was the hardest hit area during the tsunami. It's one of the most populated areas in northern Indonesia. It was an opportunity for me to learn what UNICEF does. Most importantly, it was really a chance for me to go and on behalf of UNICEF say thank you to the Americans who raised money to support victims of the tsunami. It was one of the biggest fund raising drives ever. It raised more money than most anything else that UNICEF's ever done. And it was an opportunity for me to go and say ‘Look, here's what your money did, here's the benefit that people in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia had from the money you gave them.'

TFK: You are just about to start a new tour, Joyful Noise -- 2005. How would you describe the tour?
Aiken: It's a Christmas tour. It's a little more theatrical. Last year, we did some shows with orchestras and we had a full orchestra on stage and it was a real majestic production. This year, we decided to try to make it a little more like, a “Home for the Holidays” type show...Our goal is to try to get people all warm and fuzzy for the holiday season as early as we can.

TFK: Where will you go on tour and do you like being on tour?
Aiken: I love being on tour. I actually like it quite a bit for a number of reasons. One, because there is a consistency to what I'm doing every day. I know where I'm going to be. I know what time I'm going to be there, what I'm going to be doing, and also it's a great opportunity to see the country...we start the tour in Canada and I do it in Vancouver, Canada and then we head all the way down the West coast and head up through the Western part of the Rocky (Mountain) area and on into the Midwest, the Northeast and we end in the South.

TFK: Who are your favorite musical artists?
Aiken: Growing up I never knew that I wanted to be a singer. I always thought that I wanted to be a teacher or a reporter myself or who knows, something different. So I didn't really have any musical artists that I followed or idolized.