Clay Aiken
American singer, US Fund for UNICEF Ambassador, co-founder of the Bubel Aiken Foundation.
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"I'm being trained to shake the bon-bon appropriately.."
—''Access Hollywood interview about his JukeBox Tour
I think there is a predisposition among Christians that Hollywood is anti-Jesus or anti-Christianity. I was warned I'd have to fight to maintain the freedom to express my beliefs. It's an unfair stereotype, and so far that's been the farthest from the truth. While everyone I work with may not share my beliefs, I have been surrounded by nothing but support."
—Clay Aiken - Today's Christian Magazine
" In the last ten years, as editor in chief of Today's Caregiver Magazine, I have interviewed many people who are living in the public eye, all of them having something of importance to say to family caregivers. Most times they've become caregivers after becoming famous, usually due to themselves or a family member taking ill. Our keynote speaker today is unique in that he is a professionally trained caregiver before he became known to all of us. And through the unbelievable constraints that have been placed on his time, he's never lost sight of his goal of becoming a teacher and helping children living with developmental disabilities. Only his classroom has become a whole lot larger than he ever expected.
"I know this is going to sound cheesy and like I'm trying to be Miss America, but the most important responsibility a celebrity has is to set an example and be a role model. I want to make sure that no matter how long I go through this, I don't fall into the trap of changing and modifying how I do things that aren't a positive example. I want to remain somebody that the entire family can listen to or watch."
—''Reuters, February 22, 2004.
"Clay I think, without a doubt, this performance, that song, is the best performance of the entire competition that I've ever known. Unbelievable, unbelievable.
- Paula Abdul on "Unchained Melody" -
"I think I've broken three (tha-ree) cameras today!"
—Rolling Stone photo shoot
"I always like the idea that you can turn on the radio and say, 'Oh, that's Clay Aiken. Oh, that's Barbra Streisand. Oh, that's Frank Sinatra, Oh, that's Tony Bennett.' They're a star if you can identify them immediately by their sound. That kid has his own sound. He's got energy. He's got soul. He's got it all. That voice pours out of him."
—Merv Griffin
"To be fair to all, nobody from the show can tell a finalist whether a song choice is good or bad, no matter how much they want to know. Byrd remembers Clay Aiken: "He'd say, 'Byrd, if this is a great song choice, blink your left eye.' "
—Debra Byrd (talking about American Idol)
"We have someone here today, from the smash hit show American Idol, we're thrilled to have him joining us today, because when it was made known that he would appear on this Telethon, the emails and the fan clubs that this young man has have sent us $30,000.00 just at the fact that he was here.
UNICEF does amazing work. I thought I was a worldly person, and then I started working with them and realized I don’t know as much of my world as I need to. And if I don’t know as much about my world as I need to, then many, many, many people don’t. So I’m thrilled to be in a position to be able to talk about it. And so I’m gonna.
—''FLY (online) magazine, November, 2005 issue
"Clay, you sing like Andre Agassi plays tennis, perfection, perfection. And I would kill to write and produce your first CD."
- Neil Sedaka, American Idol 2 guest judge -
"Service, and the learning that goes with it, fosters citizenship, knowledge, and personal development in everyone, young and old, with disabilities and without. Our partnership with Youth Service America will bring awareness to the fact that youth with disabilities are great assets and can serve as volunteers too."
—U.S. Newswire
"And Clay, I want to say something to you. I think you are one of the few people I've met throughout this competition who can take criticism like a grown up. Learn, You definitely got better, You've lost some of this facial thing which I think was distracting, and You just did a really grown up, fantastic performance. Congratulation."
- Simon Cowell on "Solitaire" -
"Clive [Davis] tried to tell me that saying certain words in a song- or as he says, ‘putting some balls into it'- isn't bad, it's just strong emotion. Well, there are certain words and emotions I don't want kids hearing, and I'm not changing because they think it's going to sell better. This is going to sound horrible, but I got 12 million votes doing what I did."
—''Time, 10/5/03 - describing pressure he got from RCA to "edge-up" his songs to boost sales.
"When I review the tape [of the show] the next day, there's lots of screaming and crying,"..."Then I recover the same way I do anytime I'm injured: ice, elevation and my Clay Aiken CD."
—Ellen DeGeneres (US Weekend Magazine)
"In my ideal world, no child would suffer. Charitable instincts would prevail. There would be global acceptance of all different types of people."
—Learning To Sing, Page 240
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