Clay Aiken Tickets

Clay Aiken is one of the most successful losers in reality television history. The singer, who narrowly lost to R&B singer Reuben Studdard on the 2003 season of American Idol, is the most successful second-place finisher in the shows history, with a number of tours and platinum albums under his belt.

Aiken grew up in North Carolina and released three demo albums before auditioning for American Idol. While the singer was written off as a nerd on the show, he quickly impressed the judges and fans alike with his audition. He was cut from the show after the round-of-32, he was brought back for the "Wild Card" round, and he was on his way to a spot in the Top 3.

After the Wild Card show, the show gave Aiken a makeover, replacing his glasses with contacts and changing his hairstyle to a spikier look. It was later revealed that after the Wild Card show, Aiken led the pack with the highest number of fan votes every week.

After scoring a first-runner-up spot by a very small margin, he released "Measure of a Man" in 2003. The album included the hit singles "Invisible" and "This is the Night." In 2004, he released "Merry Christmas with Love," which set a record for the fastest-selling holiday album since 1991. The collection debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. Most recently, Aiken released "A Thousand Different Ways" last year. The album includes four new songs and 10 covers. With the most recent album, Aiken is the fourth artist to ever have his first three albums debut at the Top 5 of the Billboard 200 and sell over 200,000 copies each in the first week. Aiken released a four-song Christmas EP for Walmart in late 2006, and mentioned in April 2997 that a new album was in the works.

The pop star is known for his massive tours - in 2004, he traveled with fellow American Idol album Kelly Clarkson, and toured solo later that summer. He went out behind his Christmas album that same year, and then took on a "Jukebox Tour" in the summer of 2005, featuring covers from the '50s through the '90s. Aiken has traveled on several other tours after his first marathon y ear.

Aiken has continued to reach out to his fans besides his albums and touring - he performed the Star-Spangled Banner at the World Series in 2003, and was featured at a number of parades that year. After releasing his Christmas album, he produced "A Clay Aiken Christmas," which featured artists such as Barry Manilow, Megan Mullally and Yolanda Adams. In 2004, he was featured in the A Capitol Fourth concert in Washington DC.