Clay Aiken has a new musical home, he announced on his official website today:
Clay Aiken signs record deal with Universal Music’s Decca Records. Expect new music in the first half of 2010! Keep checking back here for more details to come.
The Decca roster includes artists: Andrea Bocelli, Boyz II Men, Paula Cole, Sonya Kitchell, Morrisey–a pretty diverse lineup.
After 4 albums, Clay parted ways with RCA Records earlier this year.
good luck. maybe he’ll sell some cds.
Anyone know if Clay is still repped by Simon Renshaw?
Precisely…..
Elaborate? I always thought he was very supportive of the Claymates. Close. Idk.
This is a really interesting label and I’m curious as to what direction they’ll go with his sound.
I wish Clay the very best with his new recording contract. He has such a beautiful voice. One thing though, as each season sends out new talent, the competition for fans’ attention and finances increases. They may be in a different genre, but the demand isn’t always there. I hope Clay can recapture fans.
Well he has been rather distant and uncommunicative. His fan club is a joke. If he is to have any kind of success in the future, he is going to need to remedy those two things.
I agree with those who say he isn’t the person he was off AI2. Many, like myself, feel he did misrepresent himself. Saying that I do wish him well and hope that he is able to have some success with a new label. Time will tell.
With a normal amount of interest, I am looking forward to hearing the music he will produce with Decca. I think Clay’s voice is great, but IMO his musical taste is not good – he likes 80’s too much! Hopefully Decca will get him the right material which can sell at it’s own pace and not subject him to impossible sales pressure without promotion.
On a personal note, I guess you can say I, like some others here, was also obsessed with Clay in Season 2. Went to a bunch of his concerts and other events like GMA. I’m not in that extreme fandom anymore. I think he’s got a very odd personality – goes from warm and caring to icy and stubborn. I still love Season 2 though, and liked many songs on “On My Way Here” a lot. I will support this CD, if it delivers the goods!
Good for Clay. I wonder if the Foster connection had anything to do with his getting this. Isn’t DF with Universal these days? Will be very interesting to see what music Clay puts out. Maybe he’ll try to be another flavor of Groban, or something?
And amen to wishing this for Elliott. Trouble is, Elliott seems to really want to do top-40-type pop, and I have a hard time seeing any major label signing him for that, since although to the ear, his recent stuff is very good and way radio friendly, he just doesn’t have the right image that they’re looking for at all. And image seems to be what it’s all about — plus, he’s getting too old for a major to promote him at pop, I think. Would love to seem him do jazz or more old-school R&B, especially. And I do think he could get a label deal on one of those more easily, jazz especially (which isn’t the one he’d want to do, it seems, unfortunately!)
I was thinking the same thing about his David Foster connection- he has performed with him and now his relationship as baby-daddy/bro-in-law. I was a fanatic season 2, and my mom has become a huge fan in the last couple years. I really enjoyed seeing him at the Greek theater a couple of summers ago. I don’t care much about his personal life, I just hope that he’s happy and am glad he will still be recording. There was a beautiful song on his latest cd- “Something about us”- it was very non-pop, almost the sound of an old standard, and it was lovely. I’m sure my mom will be thrilled with this news (I took her to NYC to see him in Spamalot)- she’s like me, thinks his personal stuff should be his own business, glad he seems to be more comfortable now that he’s come out, excited that he and his mom get the joys of Parker, and hope he can still make some good music and have a career as a musician/theater person…
This is really good news. Hopefully this label will give him some respect and above all, some promotion! RCA did a pitiful job!
I thought Clay’s version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was one of the best versions of that song ever by any artist. I even liked it better than Simon & Garfunkel original version of it–but I have to agree with a couple of other folks here, when he brought to our attention his sexuality and his baby, that really did change my personal opinion of him. It over-shadowed who I had grown to like on AI…so I think the new record label will need to do some damage control to get his original fans focusing on his music and not about his personal life. Please, don’t think I am a prude everyone–I believe to each his own, however during AI he wasn’t being honest with who he truly was and kept denying rumors of his sexuality. I guess I feel his delay in honesty has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. At least with Adam this year, we knew who he was with his heavy make-up and black finger-nail polish. When the Rolling Stones article came out, we weren’t in shock by it. Clay had us fooled a bit, cause he didn’t level with us.
Really, I hated it. It was overdone, overwrought, and a bit cheesy. That is pretty much how I sum up Clay’s musical tastes. Loud is not the new good.