He finished second to Ruben Studdard for the title of American Idol in 2003. Since then his album sales among American Idol contestants are surpassed only by Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

Clay Aiken has produced eight tours. His book Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life made the New York Times Best Seller list.

As a young boy, Clay sang with the Raleigh Boys chior. As he entered his teenage years he performed with his school choirs, church choir, musicals and local theatre productions.

Later he became the lead singer in the local band "Just By Chance".

Clay Aiken attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where his interest was special education.

While attending college in Charlotte he took a part-time job as an assistant to a boy with autism, and it was this child's mother, Diane Bubel, who urged him to audition for American Idol.

Clay's performance of Elton John's "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" got him to the final 12. He replaced his glasses with contact lenses and allowed the show to change his hair style.

On 21 May 2003, Clay Aiken came in a close second to Studdard, who won the contest by 130,000 votes out of more than 24,000,000 votes cast. The result was controversial, as some hypothesized that Idol's voting system was incapable of handling the number of attempted calls.

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.

On November 16, 2004, Aiken released a holiday album titled Merry Christmas With Love, which set a new record for fastest-selling holiday album since 1991.

Clay's third album, A Thousand Different Ways, was released September 19, 2006.

A fourth album, All Is Well - Songs For Christmas was released on November 28, 2006 as a digital download.

Awards and Nominations:

American Music Awards:

2003: Won - Fan's Choice Award

2003: Nominated - Favorite Male Artist - Pop or Rock

Billboard Awards:

2003: Won - Best Selling Single of 2003 - "Bridge Over Troubled Water / This Is The Night"

2004: Won - Best Selling Christmas Album - Merry Christmas With Love

2005: Won - Best Selling Christian Album - Merry Christmas With Love

New Music Weekly Awards:

2004: Won - Top 40 Male Artist of the Year

American Christian Music Awards:

2005: Won - Outstanding Yule CD - Merry Christmas With Love