Fri. October 10.2003 9:40 PM EDT
		Clay Aiken Makes A Big Scene For 'Invisible' Video   Singer rounds up 800 Claymates for Hollywood shoot.   by Corey Moss
			Clay Aiken (RCA Records)

  BEVERLY HILLS — Clay Aiken feels especially close to "This Is the Night," and not just because the song sold nearly 400,000 copies in a week.

And not just because it trounced Ruben Studdard or pretty much everyone else, for that matter, becoming the second-best selling single of all time (see "Has America Changed Its Mind? Clay Beats Ruben On Singles Chart" ).

"It's what got me where I am in a way," Aiken said of the power ballad he premiered in the final weeks of "American Idol." "It's the song that tells the story of where I came from and the process that I went through in order to get here."

That said, the 24-year-old former Raleigh, North Carolina, student could not feel any more different about his next single, the up-tempo "Invisible."

"It's not one of those songs where the words necessarily stand out," Aiken said. "I think there are two types of songs. There's the ones that are fun to sing, fun to catch on to, fun to dance to. Then there are the ones that make you emote. A lot of the songs on the album are very emotive, but 'Invisible' is just a fun one, so why not put it out first and have fun with it."

The song, which features the chorus, "If I was invisible/ I would make you mine tonight," was co-written and produced by Desmond Child, who's worked with everyone from Bon Jovi, Cher and Alice Cooper to the Baha Men, Ricky Martin and original "American Idol" Kelly Clarkson.

"We got the demo for it and we played it inside, outside, upside down. I mean, we played it everywhere," Aiken recalled midway through a marathon of interviews in the swanky lobby of his record label. "It's just a really catchy song. We decided to do it on the tour, and it had a lot of success on the tour, so it was without a doubt the one we wanted to make the first single."

Aiken shot the "Invisible" video over the weekend with director Diane Martel, best known for Christina Aguilera's early videos. While the song's title might provoke a high concept, the singer went more straightforward, inviting 800 fans — his Claymates — to a performance at Hollywood & Highland, a major outdoor shopping center and tourist attraction in Hollywood.

"When we did the video for 'This Is the Night' it was very small. The treatment was me alone and no one else," Aiken said of his clip, which was inspired by a photo shoot (see "Clay Aiken's 'Night' Video Says 'This Is The Soul' " ). "This is a big crowd, so I'm pumped about doing it. The energy will be really good."

As with the other "American Idol" contestants who have broken into the music business — Clarkson, Studdard and Justin Guarini — Aiken's album will be released just as the new single is hitting radio stations and before the video debuts.

Due Tuesday, Aiken's once self-titled release will now be called Measure of a Man, after one of his favorite songs on the album.

"It's a song that almost didn't make it to the album, because the sound of that song doesn't completely match all the other tracks," Aiken said of the song, which is meant to be sung to a woman. "But the message of the song, it's really powerful. It's about what is important when someone loves you. I mean, do they have to give you all the things? Do you have to be materialistic? Do you need gifts from them? When all of the gifts are gone and when the person's not the best-looking person in the world, them saying they love you, isn't that enough? And that's how you should measure a man."

Aiken will promote Measure of a Man with several high-profile performances, including the American Music Awards, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Billboard Music Awards and a fall "American Idol" special.

This report is from MTV News.

Woo hoo Lets hope Clay makes Music history,  and wins with his nomination at this years annual Ama Awards.
Notice theres no other idol nominees from American idol2.
Proving yet again he should have won the show  and was and is definantly not America's 2nd choice!
Clay is up for the best Male Artists in the Pop-Rock category.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Veteran performers, including Fleetwood Mac, Celine Dion and Cher, mixed with youngsters Clay Aiken and Avril Lavigne on the list of nominees for the 31st annual American Music Awards.

Dion received two nominations Tuesday, for favorite female pop-rock artist and favorite adult contemporary artist, where she's up against Cher and Norah Jones.

Jones, whose folksy, sensuous voice earned her five Grammys earlier this year, is also vying for favorite pop-rock album for her platinum debut "Come Away With Me."

No clear favorites emerged Tuesday, with two nominations each going to R. Kelly, Luther Vandross, Ashanti and Beyonce in the soul-R&B category, Shania Twain in the country category and Sean Paul and Missy Elliott in the rap-hip hop category.

Rapper Eminem also received two nods for favorite male rapper and for the soundtrack to his semi-autobiographical film "8 Mile."

The 20 awards will be presented during a ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Nov. 16, aired on ABC. Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is the emcee.

The nominations are based on sales figures and radio play. Winners are selected by a survey of about 20,000 listeners. The nominees:

Pop-Rock:

--Male Artist: Clay Aiken, Kid Rock, John Mayer, Justin Timberlake.

--Female Artist: Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, Jennifer Lopez.

--Band, Duo or Group: Fleetwood Mac, matchbox twenty, 3 Doors Down.

--Album: "Fallen," Evanescence; "Come Away With Me," Norah Jones; "Cocky," Kid Rock; "Justified," Justin Timberlake.

Soul-R&B:

--Male Artist: Ginuwine, Jaheim, R. Kelly, Luther Vandross.

--Female Artist: Aaliyah, Ashanti, Beyonce.

--Band, Duo or Group: B2K, Dru Hill, The Isley Brothers.

--Album: "Chapter II," Ashanti; "Dangerously In Love," Beyonce; "Chocolate Factory," R. Kelly; "Dance With My Father," Luther Vandross.

Country:

--Male Artist: Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw.

--Female Artist: Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Shania Twain.

--Band, Duo or Group: Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, Dixie Chicks.

--Album: "Unleashed," Toby Keith; "Tim McGraw & The Dancehall Doctors," Tim McGraw; "Melt," Rascal Flatts; "Up!" Shania Twain.

Rap-Hip Hop:

--Male Artist: Eminem, 50 Cent, Nelly, Sean Paul.

--Female Artist: Missy Elliott, Eve, Lil' Kim.

--Band, Duo or Group: Black Eyed Peas, Bone Crusher, Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz.

--Album: "Under Construction," Missy Elliott; "Get Rich Or Die Tryin,"' 50 Cent; "Dutty Rock," Sean Paul; "8 Mile," Soundtrack.

Adult Contemporary:

--Artist: Cher, Celine Dion, Norah Jones.

Latin Music:

--Artist: Kumbia Kings, Ricky Martin, Luis Miguel.

Alternative Music:

--Artist: Coldplay, Linkin Park, Metallica.

Contemporary Inspirational:

--Artist: Steven Curtis Chapman, MercyMe, Third Day.

 

WHAT THE HECK IS A ZEOFLICK?
It is a groovy little movie that you can create with your very own photos and send it to your friends and family!
It is easy! All you have to do is...
UPLOAD your personal photos ADD your own message
SYNCH it all to Clay Aiken music: This is the night and
SEND it to ALL OF YOUR friends!

The so called saga of Ruben vs. Clay, continues
News that Clay Aiken, the "American Idol" runner-up's CD will be released a month before "AI's" grand-prize winner, Ruben Studdard, reports AP music writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody.
Even though Aiken's CD will come first, October 14, as of now, it is still untitled.
On the other hand, Studdard's "Soulful," arrives on November 11. Studdard, who's taking the so-called rivalry in stride, tells why it makes sense.
"He got his album done fairly quickly; with me, I had my own press junket, so studio time was very limited," Studdard told the AP.
"It just don't make no sense for Clay to have his album chillin' when he could just do his thing," he said. Studdard said it's been difficult juggling the schedules of his producers with his own. But he said he wasn't worried about the delay.
"I just want to be able to do the best possible project I possibly can. I don't want to just come out with an 'American Idol' souvenir album, you know what I'm saying?"
Studdard, is on the "American Idol" national tour along with Aiken and other stars of the Fox television talent show.

Okay so its on the lips of everyone still.
Its in the News, even those at rollingstone magazine are probably wondering.
How many of you have heard the news reports or seen the so call gay looking pictures..
Some of those pictures are seen in our clay galleries. You be judge.
American Idol can start a a career off but by all accounts it can also destroy one, just look at
some of the idols who were down-trodden like frenchie.
Luckily for Clay the  "Clays Gay" scandal hasn't caused his fledgling careere to suffer at all!
With the pre-release taste of his single CD Bridge Over Trouble Water and This Is The Night all Clay fans are drooling with anticipation of the release of his Albumin the fall.
The albums songs are said to be the perfect mix for Clay,  his mp3 stream here displays his vocals perfectly in its raw non studio performance and wecan only begin too imagine at how wonderful the song will sound on the album.
Okay with all that said I am stillcurious to what my clay fan friends think too, is he or is he not gay?
I think I might look into what people think about this more.
OKay I am so in love with Clays This Is The Night Song so I am posting the Lyrics for everyone to enjoy.
The Lyrics  are gorgeous!



Artist: Clay Aiken
Buy The Album: Measure of a Man

Song: This Is The Night

Lyrics:

When the world was in upside down
I could take all the time I had
But I'm not gonna wait
When a moment can vanish so fast
Cause every kiss is a kiss you can never get back
Lift me up in your arms
If you told me that's where heaven is
(Well, you'd be right)
I've been waiting forever for this
This is the night
When the answer to all my dreams
Is as close as a touch away
Why am I here holding back what I'm trying to say
Lift me up in your arms
If you told me that is where heaven is
(Well, you'd be right)
Hold me close to your heart
I will go with you to the end of the Earth
(And we'll fly)
I've been waiting forever for this
This is the night
This is the night where we capture forever
And all out tomorrows begin
After tonight we will never be lonely again
Lift me up in your arms
If you told me that is where heaven is
(Well, you'd be right)
Hold me close to your heart
I would go with you to the end of the Earth
(And we'll fly)
I've been waiting forever for this
This is the night

Clay Aiken to sing at Miss America pageant

 

	Raleigh native Clay Aiken

Another North Carolinian is heading to the Miss America Pageant, but with a lot less controversy.

"American Idol" finalist Clay Aiken will sing his signature song, "This Is the Night," at the September 20th pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Aiken will be one of the opening acts in the three-hour show.

In 2002, the state sent an unprecedented two candidates to the pageant amid a dispute over the Miss North Carolina crown.

Aiken, "American Idol" winner Ruben Studdard and other finalists from the Fox show have been touring the country this summer with "American Idols Live!"

Aiken is scheduled to release his first album in October and has
recently established the Bubel-Aiken Foundation to work on behalf of people with disabilities.

Aiken's "This Is the Night"/"Bridge Over Troubled Water" single sold 392,975 copies last week, according to SoundScan, beating Studdard's "Flying Without Wings"/"Superstar" by about 107,000 copies. Interestingly, Ruben won the "American Idol" competition by about 130,000 votes.

Both finalists are big winners, though, smoking Kelly Clarkson's 236,000 copies sold of "Before Your Love"/"A Moment Like This" in her first week on the chart last fall
(see " 'American Idol' Kelly Clarkson Crushes Singles Chart Competition").

Aiken and Studdard's first-week sales are second only to Elton John's "Candle in the Wind '97," which sold an extraordinary 3.44 million copies. Typically, the top selling single each week sells about 5,000 copies.

Clay and Ruben, together with the rest of the "American Idol" finalists, also have the #3 spot on the chart with "God Bless the USA," which was bumped down after four weeks at #1.

If Aiken is celebrating, you can bet Studdard is there or at least calling. The two are good friends and insist they're not competitive.

"Like I've said so many times, we're both so proud of each other," Clay said backstage at the "American Idol" finale
(see " 'Idol' Winner Ruben Studdard Says He's Living Out His Dream").

"Ruben said something to me before we went onstage last night. He said, 'Can you believe the two of us, the two most unlikely people, are in the finals together?' And we're just so thrilled that we're here. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, I got to win too."

"Me and Clay, we just friends, man," Studdard added. "We have a good time."

Whatever the case, the finalists are mostly done contending with each other. Their albums are due about a month apart, with Ruben's tentatively due August 19 and Clay's in September
(see " 'Idol' Heroes Ruben And Clay About To Do Battle Again").

"['American Idol'] wasn't a competition between who was better, necessarily, it was just a competition between what America preferred," Aiken said. "Did they prefer what he had to offer, which was clearly different than what I had to offer? That's all it was.

So when the albums come out, do people prefer to have a CD of what he sings or what I sing? That's all it's about."

Clay Aiken, who came in second to Ruben "the Velvet Teddy Bear'' Studdard in the most recent American Idol contest on Fox, has been keeping a few things to himself. During the months he tenored his way up the competition's ranks -- he missed winning by a mere 134,400 votes out of 24 million, a margin of one half of one percent -- he didn't reveal much more than that he was a good-natured, Baptist-churchgoing twenty-four-year-old with a goofy grin, mudflap ears, penguin-size feet and a pure crooner's voice that at one point, while working through his rendition of "Solitaire," brought guest judge Neil Sedaka almost to tears. Aiken was viewed as a kind of genial innocent, largely untouched by the vagaries of life, with a scant biography that nonetheless went far in enlarging his voting bloc. "Refreshingly normal,'' Newsweek called him. He loved kids, loved working with kids as a veteran YMCA camp counselor in his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, especially kids with autism, and was a senior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, majoring in special ed. He gave every indication of having been raised among saints.

But the show is over now, and he's walked away with a recording contract of his own, from RCA Records. So certain things he may have felt it wise to hold close before, he no longer does. He's scared of water, detests house cats, vastly prefers instant grits to real and bites his toenails: All this he can freely admit to, in that cheerful silky-twangy Southern accent of his. And then one day, he seems to surprise even himself -- "I can't believe I'm talking about this!'' -- by saying a few words about his father, one Vernon Grissom, whose last name he had until four years ago, when he legally replaced it with Aiken, his mother's maiden name.

He says these things at an outdoor restaurant in Los Angeles, on Sunset Boulevard, where he'd just ordered a bowl of spaghetti Bolognese. He was sitting with his retinue (two publicists and a bodyguard who he half-suspects even tastes his food, for poison) and trying not to notice all the other patrons gazing in his direction. "I'm really not that special,'' he said. "Really, I'm not. I was on a big TV show, but it was just a TV show. I've even had waiters give me their head shot. Like, why? What can I do?'' He seemed honestly perplexed by his new celebrity status and not happy with some of it. When one of his publicists began gawking at another celebrity -- "I think he was on Magnum, P.I.,'' she said -- Aiken glowered and said, "You know what? Please don't stare at people. You should go sit with those people over there. They like to stare at people, too.'' After that, he chatted pleasantly about his morning pedicure and manicure; about how before American Idol the show he really wanted to be on was Amazing Race; about meeting Britney Spears; about how somebody offered his mom, Faye Parker, $16,000 for his 1999 Honda Accord with 88,000 miles on it, if only he'd autograph the dashboard.

"My mom said, 'Is it OK?' I said, 'Hello! I owe $5,000 on it. Of course it's OK.' ''

Then he was asked to tell the story of the first ten years of his life.

"Are you kidding me?'' he said, laughing loudly. But a few moments later, he was off and telling what he had never publicly told before. "My mom and Vernon got separated when I was one. We kind of lived on the run -- actually, not on the run so much as we moved back and forth to stay away from him. He was an alcoholic and violent and whatnot. We moved so he wouldn't know where I was.'' He went on to request that Vernon Grissom not be referred to as his father. His father, he said, was Ray Parker, his mother's second husband, who died last July: "He is the only dad I ever had.'' He said that he himself most often refers to Vernon Grissom either by his first name or simply as "my sperm donor.''

A waiter arrived with his spaghetti. Aiken said grace, silently, and when he lifted his eyes, he asked to talk about Vernon later. Right now, he would just like to enjoy his food.

(Excerpted from RS 926, July 10, 2003)

Photograph by Matthew Rolston