To see the full calendar, go to CDD's page at Google Calendar:
A full list of upcoming events is also available at the CDD Claytracker.
Note: CDD does not necessarily endorse or subscribe to the editorial opinions of these websites/blogs.
There are always memorable and touching moments created when Clay performs in Raleigh. Let's start off with this... I'm sure all of you remember this moment fondly:
Broadway World - "Idol: The Musical" officially opening in NYC tomorrow... Idol: The Musical, a satire on the worship of former "American Idol" finalist, Clay Aiken, opens Sunday, August 12 at 8:15PM off-Broadway at the 45th Street Theatre (354 West 45th St).
WED 15
SECOND-PLACE SUCCESS: Singer CLAY AIKEN may not have taken home the title during the second season of “American Idol,” but he won the hearts of countless fans who continue to support his career in music. Aiken performs with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra tonight at 8 p.m. at Chastain Park. Tickets are $28$79. 404-249-6400. www.clayaiken.com.
"The main reason we're here is for Clay," said David Strickland, who got in line around 9AM. "It's worth the wait and the heat."
Clay Aiken fans hoping to catch his show at the Koka Booth Amphitheater Friday night sweated it out through the worst of it. Most seemed prepared for the grueling wait.
Those fanatics will claim that I am being unfair to the singer because of his appearance on Idol and that I live only to bash the hit-making factory that churns out so much waste product on the musical landscape. But my defense is the positive review I gave Daughtry's debut release. Take that fact and the fact that I was unable to actually sit through even one song of Clay Aiken's debut release and you have to know that I know my Idol singers.
Clay Aiken has been ending his summer tour with "Because You Loved Me" as a thank you to his fans for their support. A lot has happened in the fandom over the four years, but the fans that have stayed for the ride on the rollercoaster are steadfast in their admiration and appreciation of a fantastic singer and a really good man. As a response to Clay's thank you, the fans decided to wave glowsticks as an expression of their love and support. It's always a moving end to the show, but none so poignant as when he sang to his hometown crowd (along with many of his travelling fan posse) in Cary NC on August 10th.
The Official Fanclub has finally officially announced Clay's 2007 Magical Holiday Tour in an email sent out to fanclub members late last night. Fanclub members will also be delighted that presales are returning - the first one announced is for Clay's Dec. 13 Morristown, NJ date at the Mayo Center for the Performing Arts.
Clay Announces Christmas Tour & Fan Club Pre-Sale
Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling, too....Wait, sleigh bells??? Are we crazy?? It's just TOO darn hot outside to start thinking about snowy nights, sipping hot chocolate and snuggling in front of the fireplace! But is it TOO hot to start thinking about Clay's annual Christmas tour? HECK NO! It will soon be the Christmas season once again and you know what that means...
So, dust off your bells & don your Santa hats, cause before you know it, Clay and the gang will be touring "Christmas in the Heartland" for the holidays.
The first fan club presale will run from 9 a.m. EDT to 9 p.m. EDT next Tuesday, August 14th for the Morristown, NJ performance at The Community Theatre at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts on December 13th. The pre-sale password and link will be posted on the TOURS page of the prior to pre-sale start times. You will need to login using your Clay Online fan club account to see the pre-sale link and password.
Clay Aiken Pre-Sale beginning Tuesday, August 14th:
12.13.07 - Morristown, NJ - The Community Theatre - Pre-sale begins at 9 a.m. EDT
1. American Idol – Clay Aiken surprises admirer
2. Cheaters – husband caught in S&M tryst
3. Trading Spouses – God warrior wife
4. Flavor of Love – Pumkin spits at New York
5. Real World: Denver – Brooke goes bonkers
6. Man Vs Wild - Bear eats live fish
7. Armed & Famous — celebs shocked
8. Big Brother 8 – housemate hates photo
9. Celebrity Fit Club 5 – Dustin Diamond vs. Harvey
10. Adventures in Hollyhood – Sugarfoot gets slap happy
11. Dirty Jobs – poop inspector
12. Engaged & Underage – bride-to-be gets bikini was from fiance’s mom
13. America’s Next Top Model – model faints
14. I Love NY — Chance vs. Tango
15. Amazing Race – Charla in armor
16. American Idol – crying girl
17. Surreal Life 7 — Vanilla Ice meltdown
18. Hell’s Kitchen – contestant cracks-up
19. Punk’d — Zach Braff yells at kid
20. Britain’s Got Talent – opera singer
21. Real World: Denver – drunken roommate fight
22. Surreal Life – Verne Troyer pees
23. American Idol — contestant dedicates sexy song to parents
24. Jack Osbourne: Adrenaline Junkie – Jack scales El Capitan
25. Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency – Janice fired
26. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – Kermit the Frog mauled by toddler
27. Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations – Anthony eats hog anus
28. My Obnoxious Boss – Paintballs and paperjams
29. Supergroup – Sebastian Bach fights Evan Seinfeld
30. Project Runway — Tim Gunn confronts Santino
31. America’s Got Talent – Shannon Osborne walks out
32. Charm School — Brooke kicked off
33. Celebrity Duets — Little Richard doesn’t make sense
34. America’s Next Top Model – Tyra Banks tirade
35. Dancing with the Stars – Heather Mills impresses the judges
36. Deadliest Catch — Man overboard
37. I Love New York – Fight night
38. Celebrity Big Brother UK – Leo Sayer wants out of the house
39. American Idol – Simon urges Ryan to come out of the closet
40. Wildboys – Llama humps Steve-O
CDD will unveil its brand new layout later this month, as CDD Clay News Weekly subscribers found out exclusively two weeks ago.
We are excited with the direction we are heading with this new layout. It has given us the opportunity to update our code, refine loading times and incorporate new and exciting elements into the page. Some of the new changes include:
KDSM-FOX TV in Des Moines, IA aired a fantastic piece on The Bubel Aiken Foundation and the approved fundraiser Scrapping 4 Inclusion recently. Scrapping 4 Inclusion will be holding a charity event at Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines on Sunday. Here is the KDSM report courtesy YouTube:
Here is a YouTube clip of The Bubel Aiken Foundation's Jerry Aiken and Aron Hall on UNC-TV this past Tuesday night:
I bet most of you weren't aware that Mr. Clay Aiken owned not 1, not 2, not 3 ... but 6 companies!
The businesses Clay has registered are:
A young musician Daniel Davis performed a version of Clay's "I Will Carry You". And the singing is not bad at all ... in fact, I think it's pretty darn good!
Here's a YouTube clip of the performance:
Heads up - Clay will be on VH1's 40 Greatest Reality TV Moments 2 airing tonight on VH1 beginning at 8 PM Eastern Time/5 PM Pacific. VH1 confirmed this on their website:
The GreatestWe expect Clay's surprise AI5 to be featured during the show; last month, the appearance was included on the VH1 poll that asked viewers to decide what the top 40 reality TV moments were.
TV-14
40 Greatest Reality TV Moments 2
Odd hookups. Massive meltdowns. Drunken urination. Reality TV has spawned a seemingly unlimited amount of bizarre and memorable water-cooler moments, ...
Featured Artists
Vanilla Ice , Tyra Banks , Da Brat , Clay Aiken , Three 6 Mafia , Leo Sayer , More...
It's no surprise...Clay won the USA Today Idol Chatter poll with a huge landslide.
USA Today was conducting a poll to see who Idol fans would have chosen as the American Idol 2 winner now that it's been over 4 years since Ruben Studdard was crowned champ.
Here are the results, as posted on the USA Today Idol Chatter blog:
A lot of you called this the best season in Idol history, and the passion has clearly endured. I really enjoyed reading the votes that came in with added commentary on the finalists; very illuminating.
Clay Aiken won by a landslide, with an overwhelming percentage of the first-place votes and better than 40% more points than his nearest competitor.
1. Clay Aiken (2)
2. Kimberley Locke (3)
3. Ruben Studdard (1)
4. Josh Gracin (4)
5. Trenyce (5): A lot of love for Trenyce in the virtual room; her subsequent seeming disappearance was a mystery to many.
6. Rickey Smith (8): Big move up for Rickey, whose residual popularity I was unaware of. His supple voice and friendly personality seemed to be his big strong points.
7. Kimberly Caldwell (7): Massive gap between Rickey and Kim C., whose chief rallying point seemed to be her survival as a cable TV personality.
8. Carmen Rasmusen (6): Took the hit when Rickey rose two notches; she was close in points to Kim C. but had pretty lackluster support.
9. Vanessa Olivarez (12): How about this? She very nearly knocked off Carmen for 8th, retaining a lot of good will despite getting to perform in the finals only once.
10. Julia De Mato (10): A few strong supporters but clearly not enough.
11. Charles Grigsby (11): Despite my bias in favor of him (thanks, Howard Roark), he had a pretty dismal showing. He did get one third-place vote, though (and it wasn't from me).
12. Corey Clark (9 -- eliminated without a vote for failing to disclose a previous arrest): Corey has clearly left a very bad taste in your collective minds. Despite one, possibly non-serious first-place vote (or was it from Paula under a pseudonym), he had almost zero support.
"American Idol" homeboy Clay Aiken sings with orchestral accompaniment at Cary's Koka Booth Amphitheatre.
Now Carolina-born Clay Aiken hits town for a Saturday night concert at Biltmore Estate. And it’s going to the biggest local “Idol” show yet, at least in turnout, with 3,000 fans in the house.
With Aiken backed by members of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, it sounds like the makings for a night of smooth music.
Tickets: Forget about it. Most were sold long ago, and it’s unlikely any will remain at the box office this weekend.
Members of the “Clay Nation” can finally exhale. Former “American Idol” finalist and pop superstar Clay Aiken is coming back to his hometown tonight.
Aiken, who was born in Raleigh, will perform with the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary at 8:30 p.m. Gates open at 7.
The performance is part of a 23-city tour across the nation, which began July 4 and will end Aug. 19. For each performance, Aiken is taking the stage with the backing of a local symphony.
The hit FOX TV show is entering its seventh season. It's already launched strong careers for winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood and made contestants such as Clay Aiken and Sanjaya Malakar infamous.
Q: How did you choose what songs to sing?
A: For me, they're songs that move me, songs that are powerful. . . . Some of my favorites are Josh Groban, and, as cheesy as it may sound, Clay Aiken has got a very large voice. . . . I do sort of inspirational music. I hesitate to call it Christian music because it kind of has a bad rap.
The incident came only days after former "American Idol" finalist Clay Aiken fell asleep on a Continental flight, his foot landing on the armrest of the passenger in front of him. The singer claims he was awakened by a quick hit to the chest by the annoyed passenger, prompting an argument and a call to the FBI, though no charges were filed.
Speaking of airport security, passengers were detained last month aboard a Continental Express flight after a brief altercation broke out involving "American Idol" star Clay Aiken. (I'd never heard of Aiken before, but the story made quick headlines thanks to the pop-culture tinderbox that is the American media.) I received a letter from a man who'd been on the plane. "After landing, we were forced to remain on board for more than 30 minutes, without being told why," he writes. "Most of us weren't aware that anything had happened. Then, federal agents came onto the plane and interviewed people sitting near the 'altercation' site before 'releasing' us. At one point the flight attendant said, 'This is 2007, and you need to watch what you say on a plane.'" That really gets me. Apparently it's the travelers' job to keep their mouths shut, when it ought to be the authorities' job not to overreact.
Guess The Metrosexual Musician
Who likes Neutrogena (and other people buying his underpants)?
AUGUST 10--Neutrogena face scrub? Nivea "Intensive" moisturizing lotion? A pair of shower shoes? One recording star has very particular hygiene and grooming demands, according to his current tour rider. As seen in the below excerpt, along with his assorted crèmes, the artist also requires promoters to buy his underpants and tube socks. So who is it? Examine the following five names and click on the guy you think likes L'Occitane soap and those soft cotton boxers.
a) Clay Aiken
b) Sting
c) John Mayer
d) Kanye West
e) P. Diddy
There are less than 2 weeks left to make your voice heard in the Bubel Aiken Foundation "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader" pledge challenge. Clay will be taping his appearance on the hit FOX quiz show on August 28. The episode will air sometime in the fall.
Aron Hall outlines how you should send in your pledge in an email he sent out last week to TBAF supporters -
We would like to issue a challenge to all of you. We would like you to pledge an amount for each correct answer Clay gives on the show. Whether it's 50 cents or 100 dollars, every amount will help us get closer to our goal of 100 Let's ALL Play camps in 2008.As of August 9, the total value of the pledges made so far stand at $39,292.
If you would like to make a pledge, send an email to pledge@bubelaiken.org with your pledge amount. We would like to receive all pledges by August 21 when we will announce the total pledges made. After the show, we will announce the number of correct answers (we're going to assume 11) and then you can make your donations online at www.bubelaiken.org or send in a check or money order to:
The Bubel/Aiken Foundation
ATTN: Smarter Pledge
8601 Six Forks Road
Suite 400
Raleigh, NC 27615
Clay's the cover boy on this week's edition of MountainX, an independent newspaper based in Asheville, NC.
In the cover story, "Forming Clay into Rock", Alli Marshall offers a preview Clay's sold-out show at Biltmore Estate this Saturday. An abridgment appears below...
Forming Clay into Rock
by Alli Marshall in Vol. 14 / Iss. 02 on 08/08/2007
After 2003 American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken performed in Syracuse, N.Y. (backed by the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, no less), the Web site Syracuse.com dubbed the pop singer “the beloved singing teddy bear placed near a young girl’s flouncy canopied bed.”
From Idol to icon: Although American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken may lack the artistic credibility that comes with a long career of paying dues, his devoted fans — the “Claymates”— don’t seem to mind. Aiken, as his devoted fans (known as “Claymates") can attest, is often given short shrift, celebrity-wise: Benign-geek status was not exactly the reputation favored by rock gods like Jim Morrison or Robert Plant. But the N.C. native (whose pre-Idol aspiration was to become a school principal and someday raise a family) is probably better suited to tender ballads and sports jackets than primal screams and leather chaps.
Getting Clay
Part of what differentiates Aiken from his fellow touring Idols is that, at each stop, he teams up with the symphony of that particular city.
“It’s rare and exciting for us to be able to do something like this,” enthuses Asheville Symphony Artistic Administrator Sally Keeney.
“He sings ["Baby Got Back” and “Sexy Back"] to make fun of how commercialized and soulless most of the songs that get radio play today are,” fan “Natalie” commented on the Xpress blogsite, responding to an open call to defend Aiken’s talents.
“Clay Aiken and his managers are very good musicians,” Hageman continues. “They have to be, at that level.”
In this case, the Biltmore Estate contracted with the local symphony as support for Aiken’s performance, a reversal of a more common arrangement where the orchestras hire the vocalists.
“There were a heck of a lot of symphony people having their socks knocked off after watching Clay’s performances,” blogger “Kayla,” who’s attended four out of nine shows on the Aiken tour, told Xpress.
“It is [RCA chairman] Clive Davis who put him in the ‘Manilow’ box,” she charges. “But believe me, Clay Aiken is so much more than that.”
It could be argued that Barry Manilow himself, with his countless hit singles, multiplatinum albums and worldwide record sales numbering more than 75 million, is something more than a tawdry troubadour. Aiken actually might be lucky to follow in the footsteps of the man who wrote, you know, the songs.
But Aiken, seemingly uncomfortable with accepting overnight stardom outright, is going beyond introducing Claymates to civic orchestras. Pre-Idol, the Raleigh native was a special-ed teacher, and he continues that particular line of work through the Bubel/Aiken Foundation charity he co-founded.
He’s also a celebrity ambassador for UNICEF and has traveled in that capacity to Uganda, Indonesia and Afghanistan. The latter trip earned him more press for the beard he grew out of respect for local customs than for his charity work.
Three albums on, Aiken’s tenuous stardom is finally looking less like a fluke and more like the real thing.
“He is the best all-around entertainer I have ever seen,” blogger “CarylAnn” (who’s seen Elton John, Billy Joel and Journey) told Xpress. “Clay has it all. The voice, the comedic timing and the way he interacts with his fans and makes fun of himself is hilarious.”
Or, as Claymate “Carol” puts it, “People are finally starting to ‘get’ Clay.”
Two new photos of Clay at Cedar Point last month while on tour in Ohio... Man, he looks hot in those sunglasses!
More photo here
GGD were followed by other acts, including Tony Bennett, Clay Aiken and Los Lonely Boys, in setting up concerts to aid the wounded park.
Watching new champ Jordin Sparks and runner-up Blake Lewis duke it out proved to be considerably less interesting than Ruben Studdard vs. Clay Aiken or Carrie Underwood vs. Bo Bice.
