Clay Aiken
News (Page 4)

David Della Terza is the creator of the website VoteForTheWorst.com. To say he doesn't like American Idol would be putting it lightly.

The man hates our favorite show.

He recently talked to Buddytv.com about reasons why. Click here to read the entire interview - and read more below to find out whether or not he hates ALL Idols:

We don't loathe all of the contestants, we love certain people from the show. We love the Brenna Gethers, the Kevin Covaises... people who just entertain us and remember this is just a silly television show. I personally love Brenna, Kevin, Taylor, Scott Savol... just about everyone we've voted for. I hate Kellie Pickler though. She's obnoxious.

And as much as I love bad music, there's absolutely no way I would subject my poor ears to Claiken's Christmas music. Though just so I don't get an inbox full of angry letters from idiot Claymates... Man, I love Clay Aiken's album. It's so... OK, I can't do it.

We hope this isn't true, Clay Aiken fans, but follow along with the story TMZ.com recently reported regarding this typically beloved singer ...

The former American Idol star is being accused of booting a 15-year-old boy off of a concert line-up simply because he wasn't festive enough.

Joshua Willard won a North Carolina singing competition, which gave him the chance to perform with the Greensboro Symphony during Clay Aiken's Holiday concert on Saturday. Willard told TMZ he rehearsed his song, Stevie Wonder's "Superstition," and had just finished a soundcheck.

Then, managers of the Symphony told him that Aiken's camp had decided that he would not be allowed to perform because he was not singing a Christmas song.

Curiously, other singers who did have holiday songs prepared, were also not allowed to sing. Instead, Willard was only allowed to lead a 30-second group singalong. Lisa Crawford, CEO of the Greensboro Symphony, told TMZ that the children were never promised they could sing with Clay.

"It was his tour and show. We were just hired to play."

During his concert, Willard says Aiken "was trying to be more of a comedian than a singer," - and an unfunny one at that.

Willard says the American Idol crooner was rude to audience members and told several people to sit down and cover their mouth. Clay even showed a raunchier side by pretending he had flatulence every time feedback came through the speakers.

An hour after the show, Willard got to meet Clay, but says that he was "snotty" and acted like he was too good for his little fans. The former Claymates were even told not to take individual pictures with Aiken, only group shots.

Calls to Clay's rep were not immediately returned. We hope this story is skewed a bit and still support Aiken in all he does.

Apparently at universities in the south, geography is not widely taught, as southern gentleman Clay Aiken has yet to discover the Pacific Northwest is part of America. Hence, if you wish to hear Clay sing, and hail from that unfortunate corner of the U.S., pack your bags, check your boarding pass, and hop on the nearest plane for the East Coast.

Clay Aiken is currently singing with several symphony orchestras as a guest artist for this mini-Christmas tour, which kicked off December 1 in snowy Illinois - necessitating a last minute change of plans to leave his 28th birthday celebration and head to Chicago a day early.

The tour will finish in Greensboro, N.C. on the 23rd, just in time to celebrate Christmas at his new home in Raleigh.

I caught up with the tour in Baltimore after a lovely red-eye flight from the Pacific Northwest. Clay is touring without his usual back-up singers and band, though he is traveling with his music director, Jesse Vargas, from his first Joyful Noise tour in 2004.

In each city, the symphony plays anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, and then Clay sings the second half with the orchestra providing the musical accompaniment. The set list comprises songs from his first Christmas CD, Merry Christmas With Love, and four lovely additions from his Wal-Mart exclusive EP, All Is Well.

Clay is in a league of his own with Christmas carols, and this tour proves as much. His range has grown each year of his career, and the finale, "All Is Well" is a how-to primer on soft, low notes sung with passion up to the soaring, glory notes well above a tenor's range.

In each city, while Clay might have crossed his fingers and planted his feet for luck in hitting that final note, the audience shot to its feet and screamed in appreciation as he hit it. Even more impressive is that for the last week, Clay has been suffering from a debilitating inner ear infection that has given him vertigo and dizziness.

Continue Reading...

No, not the popular U2 song.

Instead, the American Idol crooner fell victim to this dizzying disease during a concert The Tilles Center in Greenvale, NY last week.

Ever the trooper, Clay Aiken went on with the show while holding his balance on a stool and giving a perfect performance for his fans, who rewarded him a standing ovation.

As he was assisted back onstage on the arm of an assistant, Aiken sang the All is Well tune from his Christmas CD for an encore ... while both he and fans swooned.

Clay Aiken is a busy man. But it's nice to know he still makes time for the kids. We just hope his presence doesn't injure them.

After all, two girls fell out of their front row seats when the American Idol runner-up strode on stage at the district high school auditorium for a Lower Nazareth Elementary School assembly.

The event celebrated 19 classmates who wrote, "Our Friend Mikayla," published earlier this year by the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, which works on behalf of children with special needs.

Mikayla Resh, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, was the subject of the biography, written and illustrated by her third-grade classmates two years ago. Her mother, Kimberly Resh, arranged the all-school assembly to thank them. The students were wide-eyed when Aiken, co-founder of the foundation, appeared.

Aiken, who was appearing Monday night at the State Theatre in Easton, read to the student body of more than 680 from the book, talked with the 19 authors, and posed for many photographs.

To Mikayla, he sang a few lines from "When I See You Smile." Then he announced a final treat: limousines to take the students back to Lower Nazareth Elementary.

In the cars, boys popped open cans of soda and girls giggled. "Is this a dream?" said one boy, Michael Allen. "It is like the first time I'll be in a limo. It is so awesome!"

The following is a CNN editorial we came across regarding the much-talked about incident (or non-incident, as we like to call it) between Clay Aiken and Kelly Ripa. While we'd prefer this story go away, we thought this writer's point was both fair and accurate, and thought you might want to check it out.

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In case anyone missed part of the 'drama' during holiday preparations, we thought we'd give a brief summary of the Kelly Ripa "feud" -- can you believe the media covered this for days? This absolutely confirms that anything Clay Aiken does is huge news, regardless of whether it has to do with his music!

To summarize, Clay was a charming and witty cohost on last week's Live! with Regis show. He and Ripa seemed to get along just fine, trading jokes, but when Kelly Ripa refused to let him get a word in edgewise, he playfully covered her mouth with his hand.

Ripa was upset and said she 'didn't know where that hand had been.' To be fair to Ripa, Clay's action doesn't win Best Observance of Personal Space, but Clay did apologize, and the show moved on in apparent harmony.

But Ripa worked up a head of steam all weekend, and on Monday, complained at bitter length about Clay's "lack of respect." Regis attempted to defuse her rant, saying Clay Aiken was likely nervous, and never imagined "in a million years" she'd have a feud with him.

Now, we know we're biased here at CNN, but we also noticed that Kelly is forgetting the times she has covered Regis' mouth on the show (not that the entertainment shows missed it. Entertainment Tonight, The Insider and Inside Edition all showed clips Wednesday pointing out Ripa's hypocrisy).

There's also the time she licked something belonging to noted germophobe Howie Mandel... and we have to wonder how pushing the photo of a cat in Clay's face qualifies as 'respectful' on her part. It's either all in good fun or... not so much.

The fact that Rosie O'Donnell decided to speak up for Clay on The View is, on the one hand, a nice gesture. However, the charge of homophobia against Ripa seems to have provided Ripa with a perfect way to deflect criticism by playing up her indignation at the charge and inviting the subsequent media storm. We're fans and yet we can't help wondering... this is major news? We're endlessly surprised by the intensity of interest in Clay's every action.

The entire issue seems to have ended on a humorous note at the American Music Awards. When Tori Spelling and Clay appeared together to present an award, Spelling quickly put her hand over Clay's mouth, and as he laughed, told him "I'll tell you where that hand has been, later." That humorous stunt to have gotten the most coverage of any appearance at the AMA's, and coverage has been overwhelmingly positive about Clay's sense of humor.

We here at CNN suggest that Ripa was within her rights to scold Clay for covering her mouth -- that can be a disconcerting violation of personal space -- although to do so privately rather than through a five-minute televised rant might have been more professional on her part.

The adult response to an apology is to accept and move on, not toss stones several days later. We'd also suggest she step out of her glass house on occasion -- if her ground rules include mocking guests' phobias, she can't really complain that her standards of 'respect' aren't properly conveyed.

Last week, we took a glimpse at the changing styles of Katharine McPhee. The reigning runner-up can pull off many looks, but she's not the only starlet (or star) in the American Idol universe who can make that claim.

Another well-known second-place finisher, Clay Aiken, has adopted a very different look of late. His longer locks make him look mature, to be sure, but do you prefer the shorter-haired, baby-faced Clay we first got to know back when he narrowly lost out to Ruben Studdard in Season 2? Or do you dig the new look?

Speaking of Idol legends coming into their own, below we see the lovely Carrie Underwood. The Oklahoma cutie has recently adopted a bold, almost vixenish look - as seen in the video for "Before He Cheats" along with numerous public appearances. Which do you prefer the traditional, sweet and innocent Carrie or the slightly-more provocative version?

It's time for another American Idol Picture of the Day, and since we can't decide which of these two to use, you get both. We couldn't justify leaving for a few days without displaying each. Call it a Thanksgiving treat.

On the left, Clay Aiken gets hushed by Tori Spelling at the American Music Awards last night, an obvious spoof on Clay's recent hushing of Kelly Ripa - an event that caused much undue controversy, as Clay fans are aware (the comments stemming that incident are so ridiculous that we didn't bother reporting it). It's good to see Clay making light of what should never have become an issue in the first place, and Tori Spelling playing along.

On the right, Taylor Hicks makes a stop in Miami... and certainly looks the part. Seriously, was this guy in Miami Vice somehow without us knowing? Not many people could pull off that shift, but Taylor does it in style. No matter what you think of him musically, you have to love Taylor Hicks (whose new album is due out any day now). He just seems like the most friendly, fun-loving person. Not unlike Mr. Aiken!

She really does. The supermodel and host of the Tyra Banks Show recently welcomed our man Clay to her set. The two clearly hit it off, and we'll get to see that on November 22, as we reported yesterday, when the program airs. But in the meantime, here is what Tyra had to say about the former American Idol runner-up (and his amazing breath) on her blog:

I am sitting at the computer right now typing away, and I haven't brushed my teeth yet, so I've got some serious morning breath. Why do we have to wake up with such foul smelling mouths in the morning?

Why can't I wake up with my mouth smelling like mouthwash? I flossed last night, brushed with an electric toothbrush, rinsed with strong cinnamon flavored mouthwash and used my tongue scraper - yet I still wake up with a mouth that smells less than fresh.

Do you know what a tongue scraper is? It is a device that removes any gunk from your tongue and keeps your breath fresher longer. You can buy it in the drugstore. It is great in the morning, cuz it does get that extra bit of bacteria out of your mouth so you'll stay fresher smelling longer. But at night...

Someone that has the freshest clean smelling breath is Clay Aiken. I know cuz he came on my show, and I had one of the most fun interviews with him that I have ever had. I am so in love with him. He is so funny, loving and just darn amazing. He even sang with me. Yes, we did a duet. I was awful. He sounded like an angel.

Clay has the most loyal fans in the world. They call themselves "Claymates." I told Clay I am a "Clay-frican American," meaning that I am an African American that loves Clay Aiken. Get it? You gotta see how much fun we had. The show airs next Wednesday, November 22.

Oh yeah, and I ask Clay the one question that everyone is dying to know the answer to. You gotta watch!!!

Much Luv,

Tyra

P.S. I'm going to brush my teeth and gargle now, so I can be so fresh and so clean today!

It's a good week to be a Clay fan.

Tomorrow (Friday, November 17), the one and only Clay Aiken will stop by Live With Regis & Kelly as guest co-host and will perform on the program as well.

The winners and runner-ups from ABC's hit show, Dancing with the Stars, will be stopping by, and the final makeover is revealed as "Thanks-For-Giving Dream Team Ambush Makeover Week" comes to an end.

To learn more, click here.

Saturday, according to his Fan Club, Clay Aiken is scheduled to kick off the holiday season by illuminating the UNICEF Snowflake in New York City. The mid-Manhattan holiday attraction has, for 20 years, marked the beginning of the festive season.

Suspended at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, the UNICEF Snowflake is anchored by four prestigious retailers: Tiffany & Co., LVMH & Louis Vuitton, Bergdorf Goodman and The Crown Building. If the pattern from past years holds, the event may be televised locally on WCBS Channel 2 in New York City, and video should be made available on the UNICEF website.

On November 21, Clay Aiken is scheduled to present an award at the American Music Awards broadcast, and you can never be sure what will happen when Jimmy Kimmel is hosting. We've already seen what happens when these two (not to mention swarms of Claymates) get together.

Lastly, on November 22, Tyra Banks welcomes Clay to the Tyra Banks Show to discuss his much-anticipated new album, A Thousand Different Ways -- and answers the one question all of America wants to know.

He'll also perform "A Thousand Days."