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Clay returned to ABC's "Good Morning America" for the first time in over 1 and a half years today to perform his new single "On My Way Here" and an old Clay classic, "Invisible". A performance of "Ashes" didn't air on TV but was made available on ABC.com.
Claymates were spotted this morning on ABC's Good Morning America in New York, armed with signs that proclaimed: "OH WHAT A KNIGHT and I'm here to see Clay Aiken".
No news on whether Clay is scheduled to make an appearance on GMA, which is co-hosted by Diane Sawyer, wife of Mike Nichols - the director of Spamalot.
Its hard to believe that its been a year, but one year ago today, September 19, 2006, Clay was on Good Morning America to sing Without You and A Thousand Days. Hundreds of loyal fans showed up for the performance...thousands would love to have been there. The memory of that day lives on, not just in our minds but also on video and in photos, beautiful pictures of Clay and "sung to perfection" songs from ATDW. Thank goodness for modern technology!!
To join in these remembrances, here are some great photos from GMA, as well as YouTube videos of snarky Clay's pre-airtime antics (Clay, smile!!) and performances of Without You and A Thousand Days. You can also download A Thousand Days from Clack Unlimited. And Clay, as always, thanks for the memories!!
MonicaJuliet from The Clayboard was lucky enough to be watching Good Morning America on Wednesday morning when they did a segment on Idol Makeovers called "American Idol: Style or Substance". She said:
Of course, we know that Clay is the one that most people think of first when they think of Idol makeovers. And he has had his share of different looks. However, I think you will all agree with me that Clay's wonderful voice and what's in his heart has remained the same, if not become better. He has both the style and the substance.GMA showed a few clips of Clay from his AI2 audition and the ATD music video. They were doing a piece on AI transformations from this season, but also showed past contestants...he was the only past Idol contestant that they showed more than once!
The Raleigh News & Observer has found a cool website called MapMuse.com that allows you to "map" American Idol contestants... "Type in "Raleigh, N.C." and a map appears with Clay Aiken's name." ... check it out here.
Blender Magazine has a list of the "hottest women (and men) of American Idol"... Clay comes in at #3 on the list after Kelly Clarkson and Katharine McPhee.Among the five "Idol" second-place finishers, McPhee is squarely in the middle of first week sales: Clay Aiken's "Measure of a Man" (613,000 sold) and Bo Bice's "The Real Thing" (227,000) have opened ahead of her; Justin Guarini's self-titled album (57,000) and Diana DeGarmo's "Blue Skies" (47,000) sold fewer copies.
If American Idol were a right-wing agenda, cornballs like Clay Aiken and Taylor Hicks would be Bush and Cheney, and Katharine McPhee would be an affable centrist: a little more square than you'd like, but not hopeless.
Clay Aiken kicked off the campaign on January 30th with the question: “What can we do to get more Americans committed to supporting programs that help children?”, which received close to 6,000 answers from the Yahoo! Answers community.
“We all need to work together to help the world’s children survive,” said UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken. “Online communities such as Yahoo! Answers give us a powerful forum to talk about the challenges UNICEF faces and discuss new solutions for saving kids’ lives.”
While American Idol has obviously made big names for artists like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino and Taylor Hicks it is often the train-wreck auditions that bring out the biggest audiences. As the "Idol" sensation has taken hold of the U.S. it has also become a staple in several other countries.
But losers have had their cake, too: Jennifer Hudson, who lost in the third season, was recently nominated for an Oscar for her role in Dreamgirls. Several others used the exposure to garner record deals with some releasing best-selling albums, including second season runner-up Clay Aiken and the fifth season’s Chris Daughtry.
You can spin off a Kelly Clarkson, a Clay Aiken, a Carrie Underwood and have them find their own particular pop niche with whatever backing musicians suit them for the occasion. Or you can have a finalist like Chris Daughtry return to his band and pull them up with him.
Contestants covered songs by artists like Bonnie Raitt and Candlebox, and American Idols Clay Aiken and Carrie Underwood. S Students gathered on the mezzanine to take in the two-hour show.
They're easy to malign, but I would argue that among Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, Fantasia, Underwood, Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee, there are a lot of demographics and musical styles being hit and obviously, people watch the show.
My GMA Recap – with visuals!
We got to GMA about 5:30 a.m. and there were about 15 people in line. Not too bad at all – we should get a good spot! About 6:15 a.m. a school (I think) arrived with a lot of young kids….maybe 6-7 year olds? They let them in first and put them in the back corner.
So we are still freezing our butts off and at about 6:30 a.m. a HUGE group of people – I would say, in their 70s all arrived with bird hats and bird signs that said KU on them. Huh? Anyway, we THEN find out that the weatherman has 68 – yes sixty-eight VIPs!!!!! ACK!!!!! They are the VIPs!!!! And they were ALL very tall!!!! So they let them all in and they all got the front spots, and then finally we are let in and there is nowhere to stand but behind them. And I am VERY short. I could not see at all whatsoever. I even tried lifting up the camera, and still would not be able to see. I wanted to cry.
As it was getting closer to Clay’s segment, I didn’t know what to do. Finally, I saw Dazaccent and her sister, who were standing on the very end, and so I mustered up all my courage and squeezed my way over to ask her if I could stand in front of her. She is tall too, and would be able to see over my head. And she said yes!!!! I couldn’t believe it! If it was not for her, I would not have been able to see at all or get any Clack. They were so very kind to me!!!! Thank you!!!!! I love them!
It’s almost time for Clay. They were telling the children that he was going to come out and talk to them. They asked them if they knew who he was, and they all just kinda looked around at each other with blank faces. Samantha Green (the audience coordinator) moved some people by the door before the kids so he could walk down a line of people and then stop to talk to the kids. She then told us, he was going to continue down the line. EEEEEE!!!!
Here he comes!!!!
The door opens, the crowd screams and he walks down the row shaking hands and then stops at the children and starts talking to them - asking them why they aren’t in school. Haha!
OMG, he was soooooooo beautiful….he just took my breath away…
So he’s talking to the kids and the camera guys tell him that Robin and Diane are asking why he isn’t outside freezing with them. What? No! So he turns around and leaves to go outside. Waahhhh…..he didn’t come over to us. :bluesniff
Now it’s almost time for his segment, so he comes back in and heads over right past us to this little girl who’s birthday it was. She was wearing a hat that looked like a birthday cake. I think she was turning 11? Don’t know for sure. So he comes in and walks over to her and starts talking to her, and he’s only a few feet in front of me. Wow.
I went in for a closer look……
Then……….he bent over right in front of me! What is a girl to do???
And someone behind me says, "OMG, I don't think he's wearing any underwear!" :yow
Then he sat down for the interview, and he gave us some very pretty, interesting shots….as well as some tongue!
During these shots, the camera people and workers kept standing and walking around in front of us. VERY frustrating. At one point, I was literally squatting on the floor with my arm extended out to the right in front of the person standing next to me, just to get the shot. When someone else got in our way, someone actually walked right over to the guy tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to move. :laugh One of the camera guys says "you guys are crazy!" Heh.
And then before I knew, it was over……
We went outside to catch him as he left, and, unfortunately, I reused an old tape, and all the footage was ruined. I just caught the last bit of him as he was leaving. Oh well.
But as he came by, he grabbed my left hand with BOTH of his hands and gave it a good shake. Of course, stupid me, I forgot to take off my glove!!! Doh!!!!
And this lovely is for my good friend, hotclay……….and myself………and whoever else wants to enjoy it.
