Clay Aiken Bio (Biography)
Real name:
Clayton Holmes Grissom
Date of birth:
November 30. 1978
Place of birth:
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Astrology Sign:
Sagittarius
Height:
6' 1" (1.85 m)
Hair color:
Red
Eye color:
Green
Fathers name:
Vernon Grissom
Mothers name:
Faye Aiken Parker
Tags:
Recent Gossips (7)
American Idol alum Clay Aiken spoke at the Human Rights Campaign dinn... (more...)
(1 week, 2 days ago)
Durham, North Carolina-native Pam Spaulding has a full report on th... (more...)
(1 week, 3 days ago)
Prepare yourself North Carolina: Clay Aiken is back!
The former close... (more...)
(1 week, 6 days ago)
[HMG] – In a welcome move which may balance the scale after the ... (more...)
(1 week, 6 days ago)
Homosexual singer CLAY AIKEN is lending his support to a gay rights ... (more...)
(2 weeks ago)
Pictures
Biography
Born on November 30, 1978 in Raleigh, North Carolina, Clayton Holmes Grissom, more popularly known as Clay Aiken, is the runner-up in the second season of the star search program American Idol. He is probably one of the most popular and the most successful of all the Idol winners and runners-up.
During the initial auditions for American Idol, it was believed that Clay Aiken will not win, mainly because of his geeky appearance. However, when he started singing his piece for the audition, notably Always and Forever by Heatwave, the American Idol judges were taken by surprise. He made it to the finals and placed second to Ruben Studdart. The results were met with much controversy, as it was speculated that American Idol's voting system could not handle all the calls that came and thus generated randomized results. American Idol's executive producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed later on that Clay Aiken would have won over Ruben Studdart had the results not been randomized.
Despite this controversy, Clay Aiken was able to go on his own and came up with top-selling albums. His first album, Measure of a Man (2003), debuted on Billboard 200 at number one and generated four million in sales worldwide. His Christmas album, Merry Christmas with Love, released a year after his debut album, enjoyed two million in worldwide sales and reached the number four spot on Billboard 200. His most recent album, A Thousand Different Ways, was released on September 2006; it has peaked at number two on Billboard 200 and has sold 500,000 copies in the United States alone so far.
Clay Aiken graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on December 2003 with a degree on special education. His interest in autism and on the needs of children with disabilities has led him to start up the Bubel/Aiken Foundation. The aim of this foundation is to help children with disabilities become integrated in the same kind of life that their non-disabled peers enjoy. Clay Aiken is also a UNICEF National Ambassador and has participated in the organization's relief missions to South Asia after the region was hit by a tsunami in 2004.
During the initial auditions for American Idol, it was believed that Clay Aiken will not win, mainly because of his geeky appearance. However, when he started singing his piece for the audition, notably Always and Forever by Heatwave, the American Idol judges were taken by surprise. He made it to the finals and placed second to Ruben Studdart. The results were met with much controversy, as it was speculated that American Idol's voting system could not handle all the calls that came and thus generated randomized results. American Idol's executive producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed later on that Clay Aiken would have won over Ruben Studdart had the results not been randomized.
Despite this controversy, Clay Aiken was able to go on his own and came up with top-selling albums. His first album, Measure of a Man (2003), debuted on Billboard 200 at number one and generated four million in sales worldwide. His Christmas album, Merry Christmas with Love, released a year after his debut album, enjoyed two million in worldwide sales and reached the number four spot on Billboard 200. His most recent album, A Thousand Different Ways, was released on September 2006; it has peaked at number two on Billboard 200 and has sold 500,000 copies in the United States alone so far.
Clay Aiken graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on December 2003 with a degree on special education. His interest in autism and on the needs of children with disabilities has led him to start up the Bubel/Aiken Foundation. The aim of this foundation is to help children with disabilities become integrated in the same kind of life that their non-disabled peers enjoy. Clay Aiken is also a UNICEF National Ambassador and has participated in the organization's relief missions to South Asia after the region was hit by a tsunami in 2004.