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… See more

Aiken had filled out an application to participate in the reality show The Amazing Race when a friend of his insisted that he try out for American Idol instead. Television viewers first glimpsed Aiken during the audition epi… See more

On October 14, 2003, Aiken released his first solo album, Measure of a Man, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with 613,000 copies sold in its first week, the highest-selling debut for a solo artist in 10 years. T… See more