Clay Aiken was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. As a young boy, Aiken sang in the Raleigh Boychoir and as a teenager, he sang in school choirs, church choir, musicals and local theatre productions. . After high school he sang lead with a local band, Just By Chance, and cohosted and performed with the band at "Just by Chance and Friends" shows in Dunn, NC. He was also emcee and performer Read more...

Aiken had filled out an application to participate in the reality show Amazing Race when a friend of his insisted that he try out for American Idol instead. Television viewers' first glimpse of Aiken came during the audition episodes at the beginning of American Idol's second season. The show's judges first saw Aiken as a nerdy type unlikely to be any kind of idol, but after hearing him sing Heatwave's Read more...

On October 14, 2003, Aiken released his first solo album, Measure of a Man, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was, with 613,000 copies sold in its first week, the highest-selling debut for a solo artist in 10 years, and to date the highest debut of any Idol. The album received RIAA Double Platinum certification November 17, 2003 (a Double Platinum plaque was presented to Aiken by Clive Read more...