July 13, 2008
Clay Aiken’s “On My Way Here” now on Power 98 (Singapore)
Clay’s “On My Way Here” debuted on Power 98FM (Singapore) the week of July 7th 🙂
June 14, 2008
NEW Clay Aiken Bio on his Official Fan Club site
Clay Aiken – Biography
Full bio at: http://www.clayonline.com/biography
Excerpts:
He has toured nine times, written a New York Times bestselling memoir, sold more than six million albums, produced and hosted television programs, starred on Broadway, and devoted considerable energy and resources to improving the lives of children all over the world. He has done all of this while maintaining an enviable humility and down-home charm. Appealing to both kids and parents, Aiken is that rare find — a celebrity with integrity.
In just a few short years in the public eye, Aiken has released five well-received albums.
About On My Way Here:
For his current album, On My Way Here, Aiken selected songs that he believes will resonate with anyone who has endured the trials of growing older and growing up. He chose songs that not only spoke to him, but mirrored his own experiences of learning who he is as an adult and where he belongs in the world at large. As he sings on the stirring title track, “I’ve seen the best, I’ve seen the worst, I wouldn’t change what I’ve been through. I’ve touched the sky, I’ve hit the wall, but I did what I had to do.”
With On My Way Here, Aiken is hopeful that listeners will identify with the message and the singer. “I would like to have signature songs,” he explains. Of how he selects which tunes to sing, Aiken says simply, “I like songs that hit me right in the gut.”
About his book, Learning to Sing:
Prior to his latest accomplishments, Aiken wrote a 2004 best-selling memoir, detailing the path his life has taken thus far, paying special attention to his spiritual development. Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life, detailed his formative influences, telling the story of his childhood through his rise to fame in candid and revealing language that offered an unfiltered peek into Aiken’s private life. Readers and critics embraced his style and his message, making the book an instant New York Times best seller, a prestigious spot it occupied for seven weeks.
About UNICEF and other causes:
While all of these successes matter to him, what gives Aiken the most joy is his activism on behalf of children. As he has often explained, “My music career has allowed me to do the same thing I was doing before — work with kids. It has just given me a bigger stage, so I can enact change on a grander scale.”
In April 2007 he returned from Afghanistan where he toured schools and marveled at the resilience of the children he met there. His experience prompted him to launch the “$100,000 in 10 Days” campaign to continue offering lifesaving support for kids in that country. The campaign ended up netting $250,000 in fewer than five days.
And I particularly like this part:
“It makes me thankful for my life,” says Aiken of all his work abroad and with children in need. “These kids, many of them struggle with unimaginable hardships and yet they have positive attitudes. They don’t feel sorry for themselves. Kids who suffer the most never do. You see that, and it keeps all your own nonsense in perspective.”
May 29, 2008
Clay Aiken: Article in Today (Singapore) newspaper, May 29, 2008
Anyone see the article on Clay in today’s TODAY (Singapore)?
What a really good surprise to see this article! Made my day.
When a friend, a Clay fan, told me about it, I had to ask, “Is it a good article?” And when I in turn told another friend (so that she too could go find her own copy), she asked the exact same question.
How sad is it that we have to ask this question of one of the most clean-living celebrities around today!
And Clay addresses that in the interview, joking that: “That’s what’s so great about America,” he said, laughing. “One of our valuable amendments to the Constitution — freedom of the press — is also one of the crappiest. You can write anything you want. You don’t need to have any proof or any truth to what you write.”
Check out the rest of the article at the todayonline.com site:
May 23, 2008
Clay Aiken’s “Something About Us”
One of the pleasures of listening to Clay’s On My Way Here is that it features a variety of sounds, from songs which are more pop to songs that have rock, r&b, or jazz influences, like “Something About Us” (Track 4).
I have to be honest. I first heard “Something About Us” when snippets from the CDs were put up on an online retailer’s site, and was a wee bit disappointed. I thought it sounded old. But once I got hold of the CD, and heard the song in its entirety, it became one of my favourite songs on there. The jazzy arrangement complements the deeply romantic lyrics perfectly. And the whole effect is rather cool (not dated at all). Plus LOVE Clay’s vocal work on this song.
My favourite line? “It’s old and new / It’s a classic tale of two / in a perfectly perfect love” . It captures perfectly what I like about this song, that it feels so timeless.
Clay mentioned that he found this track himself while wandering around songwriters’ myspace pages. And that he thinks it’s a beautiful song (Which it is). I find it interesting that this song has so much in common with “The Way” from Clay’s Measure of a Man
Interesting American Idol connection:
Regie Hamm, one of the co-writers of “Something About Us“, just won the American Idol Songwriter contest with the song “Time of My Life” (and will have his song released by David Cook).
—————
Lyrics: Something About Us
Stop the music
Play the song
And we’ll dance together
all night long
The spotlight glows
Somehow it knows
That there’s something about us
Something about us
People smile when they walk by
There’s too much magic to deny
A fool can see
We’re meant to be
There’s something about us
Something about us
The words on every poet’s tongue
Every love song ever sung’s
about us
It’s about us
From Romeo and Juliet
to plays they haven’t written yet
It’s old and new
It’s a classic tale of two
in a perfectly perfect love
You can see it in our way
in how we spend our nights
and days
A crazy laugh
A photograph
There’s just something about us
Something about us
The words on every poet’s tongue
Every love song ever sung’s
about us
It’s about us
From Romeo and Juliet,
to plays they haven’t written yet
It’s old and new
It’s a classic tale of two
In a perfectly perfect love
Stop the music
Play the song
And we’ll dance together
all night long
We’ll reminisce of moments
like this
‘Cause there’s something about us
Yes there’s something about us
Oh there something about us
——-
Lyrics: The Way (from Measure of a Man CD)
There’s something ’bout the way you look tonight
There’s something ’bout the way that
I can’t take my eyes off you
There’s something ’bout the way your lips invite
Maybe it’s the way that
I get nervous when you’re around
And I want you to be mine
And if you need a reason why…
CHORUS
It’s in the way that you move me
And the way that you tease me
The way that I want you tonight
It’s in the way that you hold me
And the way that you know me
And when I can’t find the right words to say
You feel it in the way
Oh, oh
You feel it in the way
There’s something ’bout how you stay on my mind
There’s something ’bout the way that
I whisper your name when I’m asleep, oh girl
Maybe it’s the look you get in your eyes
Oh, baby, it’s the way that
It makes me feel to see you smile
And the reasons, they may change
But what I’m feeling stays the same
CHORUS
Oh, oh
You feel it in the way
I can’t put my fingers on
Just what it is
That makes me love you
You know, baby
So don’t ask me to describe
I get all choked up inside
Just thinking ’bout the way
CHORUS
It’s in the way that you move me
And the way that you tease me
The way
You feel it in the way
There’s something ’bout the way you look tonight
There’s nothing more to say than
I feel it in the way
————-
RELATED LINKS
My thoughts on a couple of other songs on Clay’s On My Way Here CD:
Clay Aiken’s “Sacrificial Love”
Clay Aiken’s “Weight of the World”
Crooked Turret 