2007 Options

[LovesClaysVoice]

Clay Aiken and Family Christmas With Survivors of Mexico's Flood


CHIAPAS, Mexico, Dec. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- UNICEF Ambassador and
critically acclaimed recording artist Clay Aiken today wrapped up the first
leg of his trip to the flood affected areas of southeast Mexico by
participating in a gift exchange and "sing along" with over 300 children
and their families at a camp erected for flood victims.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071225/AQTU002)

Aiken, who is traveling in the region with his mother and younger
brother, a Marine on leave from Iraq, will also be part of a UNICEF
delegation scheduled to visit the state of Tabasco over the next two days.

"The situation in Chiapas and Tabasco has really become a forgotten
emergency," said the U.S. pop star who became an ambassador for the
children's agency in 2004. "Telling the story of these brave people,
especially the children, to a U.S. audience is the reason that I am here.
Sharing this experience with my family during this time of year makes it
even more special."

In one weekend last month torrential rains in Tabasco and Chiapas
produced the worst flooding the region has seen in more than 50 years. More
than one million residents of the two states have been affected, one third
of which are children.

While an integrated humanitarian response lead by government and U.N.
agencies has stabilized the emergency in Mexico, thousands remain homeless
and displaced. According to UNICEF officials in the region, children are
the most vulnerable in these situations. Hundreds of them are at risk of
psychological trauma and many more are out of school due to extensive
structural damage to school buildings.

Today's event, also attended by Hon. Isabel Aguilera de Sabines, First
Lady of the state of Chiapas, was held in the city of Ostuacan where 19
deaths were recently reported after a series of mudslides engulfed the
small mountain community of Juan de Grijalva and the search for six missing
residents is ongoing.

Chiapas is bordered on the north by the state of Tabasco, on the south
by the Pacific Ocean, on the east by the Central American nation of
Guatemala and on the west by the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz. Chiapas has
111 municipalities. Its capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, lies near the center of
the state. Tabasco is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Mexico, to the
south by the state of Chiapas, to the east by Guatemala and Campeche and to
the west by Veracruz. Villahermosa is Tabasco's capital city.



How To Help:
Please visit: http://www.unicefusa.org or call 1-800-4UNICEF

Attention Broadcasters:
Hard copy b-roll footage available.
About UNICEF

For more than 60 years, UNICEF has been the world's leading
international children's organization, working in over 150 countries to
address the ongoing issues that affect why kids are dying. UNICEF provides
lifesaving nutrition, clean water, education, protection and emergency
response saving more young lives than any other humanitarian organization
in the world. While millions of children die every year of preventable
causes like dehydration, upper respiratory infections and measles, UNICEF,
with the support of partnering organizations and donors alike, has the
global experience, resources and reach to give children the best hope of
survival. For more information about UNICEF, please visit
http://www.unicefusa.org.



 

[musicfan]

Vancouver Sun 6-2-07

[musicfan]

National Post Canada 6/6/07

[musicfan]

Orange County Register, CA. 7-15-07

[musicfan]

New York Daily News 3/19/07

[musicfan]

The Herald 3/20/07

Hairdresser sharing the road with cousin Clay
By Sarah McNeil
Staff reporter

Four Oaks- Clay Aiken likes to change his hair often—from brown to blond, spiky to sleek, short to long. And for the past three months, Aiken has been entrusting his locks to his cousin, Jamie Braswell.
“We have become closer and really good friends,” Braswell says of her relationship with Aiken. “I feel lucky to have him and experience all the things he does, because a lot of people don’t get that chance.”
Most people know Aiken as the Raleigh resident who nearly won “American Idol” in 2003. Although he lost to Ruben Studdard, Aiken’s first solo album, “Measure Of A Man”, was the highest-selling debut for a solo artist in 10 years. He released his latest album “A Thousand Different Ways,” this past September.
Although Aiken is now a celebrity, Braswell has known him since they were children. Braswell, 28, is only four months older than her cousin. She has fond memories of Aiken belting out country classics at the Johnston County Music Showcase in the late 1990’s. He even organized his own concerts in Benson and Dunn before trying out for “American Idol”.
“When he went to try out, I always had a positive view, because I knew he could sing,” says Braswell, who lives in Four Oaks. “I knew he had one of the best voices I had ever heard, so I had a lot of confidence in him.”
After receiving her cosmetology degree from Johnson Community College, Braswell began working at John Michael’s Artistic Hair Team in Smithfield. Aiken asked her to be his personal hairdresser this past Christmas during a tour of 18 cities in the United States. After working out the details with John Michael’s, Braswell hit the road with Aiken’s crew in a tour bus for three weeks.
“Every night we tried to watch ‘The West Wing,’” Braswell recalls. “We had the series on DVD. We would stay up and talk because we were all really good friends. We would talk about what happened at the shows and just cut up.”
During the tour, Aiken would rehearse at the venues in the afternoon. Braswell would primp Aiken’s hair and chose his clothing one hour before it was time for Aiken to hit the stage. Early on, Braswell would watch the show behind the curtain, but that did not last long.
“Clay had this idea of me walking out on stage with a sign for the word of the day,” she says. “The fans had to guess what it meant. They loved it and started cheating. They would bring their dictionaries and as soon as I walked out with the word of the day, you could see people in the audience trying to find the meaning.”
Before the holidays, Braswell has had the chance to visit New York with Aiken. Besides indulging in some shopping and Broadway shows, Braswell met anchors from “Good Morning America” and “The View,” along with stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Patrick Dempsey.
“In the past four years of my life, I have experienced a lot of firsts, as far as flying, going to California, New York or the big cities,” Braswell says. “I have really been blessed to experience every thing I have gone through.”
On Valentine’s Day, Aiken premiered his latest hair-do on the “Jimmy Kimmel Show” in California. Gone was the long, dark hair. Instead, Aiken donned shorter brown hair with blonde streaks.
“We cut at least one or two inches,” Braswell says. “I know the dustpan was full of his hair. He’s really not picky. Most of the time he will just say to do whatever. If there is something he doesn’t like about it, he knows he can tell me, because I want him to so we can fix it.”
As Braswell continues to experiment with Aiken’s hair, she realizes some people may not always like the style. “You hear the good and the bad,” she says. “Everybody has their own opinion. I have learned to take it with a grain of salt and don’t worry about it.”

[musicfan]

Calgary Herald 6/2/07

Foster summons famous friends

Heath McCoy, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, June 02, 2007
David Foster has friends in high places.

Lionel Richie, Reba McEntire -- he drops the names of those superstar singers with an almost casual air as he announces the list of musicians he's asked to perform at the David Foster and Friends Charity Gala, to be held Sept. 8 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall.

His buddy Jay Leno? Foster hasn't made the call yet, but the Victoria-born, Grammy-winning musician and producer plans to, and, since the Tonight Show host made it to another gig for the David Foster Foundation in Victoria 10 years back, there's a good chance he'll make it to Calgary, too.
As for that famed runner-up from American Idol, Clay Aiken? Well, a playful Foster dances around the rumour that Aiken will be performing at the Calgary concert, but he did manage to bring the pop star into town Friday to perform at a private backyard party for the foundation.

Why wasn't Aiken at the Friday afternoon press conference, held downtown at the new Wild Ginger restaurant? "Clay likes to sleep late," explains a dapper Foster, posing for pictures at his keyboard as the conference wraps up.

"But he's a wonderful friend of the Foundation and he loves Canada. . . . He's just here to help."

Performers already booked for the concert and gala -- which will provide financial support to the families of children in need of organ transplants -- also include soft rocker Peter Cetera of Chicago fame, urban hitmaker Babyface Edmonds, Canadian country artist Beverley Mahood, and comedian Sinbad.

"Everybody says 'Who's coming?' " Foster joked at the press conference. "It's been my nemesis for years. What you need to know is, things change at the last minute. Ten years ago Natalie Cole was coming. Then, two days before, she cancelled so I called up Boz Scaggs and got him. Another time somebody cancelled and we got Bryan Adams. We've had Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli . . . (Michael) Buble. . . . I guarantee Calgary will get their money's worth and then some."

Foster, 57, who has produced massive hits for the likes of Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston, has been organizing his charity galas since 1986, raising millions of dollars and supporting hundreds of families.

Two years ago, the B.C.-based charity expanded its mandate to help families across Canada. The Sept. 8 Calgary gala will be the first time the event has been held in Alberta. The Calgary event is being co-chaired by local philanthropists W. Brett Wilson, chairman of First Energy Capital Corp., and Wayne H. Henuset who owns Willow Park Wine and Spirits.

"I've basically been begging for over 20 years now, getting money from people and asking artists to perform," says Foster. "Some artists won't even take my calls anymore. But I don't care because this is important stuff."

For more information about the charity concert and gala, and to purchase tickets for the Sept. 8 event (800 will be sold at $1,500) visit www.davidfosterandfriends.com or phone 1-877-777-7675.

[musicfan]

Raleigh News and Observer 6/22/07

In this off-Broadway musical, Clay's the thing
by David Menconi, Staff Writer

When "Idol: The Musical" hits the stage in New York next month, Clay Aiken won't be there in person. But there will be a bust of Raleigh's hometown "American Idol" star onstage, and someone singing "Burnin' Hunk o' Clay" to it.
Yes, Aiken is coming to the theatrical stage, but only as inspiration. "Idol: The Musical" is billed as a musical farce about a "delusional group of 'Idol' fans in search of fame." It begins previews at New York's off-Broadway 45th Street Theatre on July 5.

Aiken himself is not involved with the project. Janice Riley, his personal assistant in Raleigh, declined to comment.

The cast of "Idol: The Musical" consists of eight high school seniors in Steubenville, Ohio, where they've built a shrine to Aiken in a barn and meet every day to worship. There's a basketball player who would rather be a male stripper in Chippendales, a goth girl, a cowboy with poor fashion sense, a guy who plays accordion while reciting Shakespeare -- and Emily, the leader, whose fantasy it is to marry Aiken someday.

"That just sounds over-the-top from beginning to end," says Paul Baragona, an Aiken fan from Raleigh. Still, early reactions on the Aiken message boards have been surprisingly upbeat.

"It does not attack anyone or anything in any way," says "Idol" producer Todd Ellis, who calls himself an Aiken fan. "It does look at the fan base of 'American Idol' and Clay, but also anything out there that people glom onto. It's a farce that looks at how America deifies the idols in our society."

Because of copyright and trademark laws, none of Aiken's music appears in "Idol." Composer Jon Balcourt wrote the score and Bill Boland, who co-produced the Academy Award-winning 2005 short film "West Bank Story," wrote the script.

"Idol" is scheduled for eight weeks of previews in New York and an official opening in mid-August at the 99-seat 45th Street Theatre, followed by a move to a larger venue if ticket sales are high enough. "Idol" premiered June 1 in Syracuse, prompting one online reviewer to call it "the 'Forrest Gump' of musicals."

And how did the hard-core Claymates react?

"The audience loved the show. It's universal, an everyman story," said Ellis. "Everyone wants something better than what they have, to be discovered."

[jbc4clay]

An Idol Who Really Gives Back

05/07/2007 7:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Laura Hertzfeld

Before charming the hearts of American Idol fans in 2003, singer Clay Aiken was a teacher, focusing on special education in his native North Carolina. Today, in addition to performing and recording, Clay acts as an education ambassador for UNICEF, most recently in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Still jetlagged, Clay told Yahoo! Music in his smooth drawl why Idol Gives Back won't solve the poverty problem, what it was like to grow a beard and wear long robes, and why he never sings when visiting schools abroad.

YAHOO! MUSIC: What were your overall impressions of Afghanistan?

CLAY: I think, more than anything, the trip to me was a stereotype-breaker because there are so many times in the U.S. that we see in the news the negative things that happen in Afghanistan. We see the headcoverings and we think Muslim, we hear about suicide bombings and terrorists, and we think "Middle East." Afghanistan's not in the Middle East, it's in South Asia, and it's not a desert. My friends were all, "It must have been so hot there!" But you can see in some of the pictures the snow-capped mountains. There are many parts of Afghanistan that are really quite a lush landscape. I had a lot of misconceptions about the country and about the people there.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Why education?

CLAY: Well you know, I was a teacher, so education is kind of important to me. I focus on education mainly with UNICEF on every trip that I take. A number of schools [in Afghanistan] were destroyed during the Taliban era. The schools that were around only housed male students--girls were not allowed to go to school. So now there are twice the number of students and there's just not enough room to hold these kids. They are sitting outside on the ground all day.

YAHOO! MUSIC: The Idol Gives Back charity event raised more than $70 million. Could you relate to what you saw your fellow idols doing in Africa and other places?

CLAY: I think there's definitely a problem--and I'll point to recent charity events--when people go and they talk about the need in an area or a country and they don't have the information. If you come back and you talk about the need in a country and don't know what's going on in the country, then you're completely remiss. There's always a greater cause [to poverty] than throwing money at the issue, and I think the strongest solution, the strongest weapon we have against poverty and hunger is education. When you take a look at something like Idol Gives Back and you realize that the main piece of information we got is that people are hungry in Africa, but we didn't find out why they are hungry in Africa and we didn't out where in Africa they are hungry, nor did we find out the major causes. Without the education about what's going on in the country, we're doing no service except for perpetuating that same stereotype that Africa, or any other country in the world, is lesser than the U.S., and we're in the role that we have to give to them.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Did you perform for the kids you met in Afghanistan? How did they like your music?

CLAY: [Laughing] I made the mistake in Uganda of performing for some kids who were in a night commuter center, and they were singing a song and they were clapping. It was kind of a joyful, cheerful song. They didn't know me, but they had heard that I was a singer, and so they asked me to sing a song, and I couldn't think of what to sing. And someone whispered to me, "Sing 'Bridge Over Troubled Water.'" And so I got through maybe a line of the song before the kids started laughing at me so hard. They'd never heard any music like that before in their lives. So I've made it a point when I take these trips to never sing.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Maybe someday you'll get a request.

CLAY: Maybe next time I take a trip I'll make it a point to learn a native song.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Do you have a favorite story of any of the people you met in Afghanistan or a moment during your trip that touched you the most?

CLAY: One of the things that stuck with me more than anything else was just the hunger, the thirst for education. I mean, these kids wanted to go to school. My social studies teacher [who accompanied me on the trip]--she was quite jealous. She's been teaching for 30 years and she's never had a class full of students who wanted to be there as much as these kids in Afghanistan wanted to be there.

YAHOO! MUSIC: How has your work with UNICEF influenced your music? What do you take back with you?

CLAY: Every time I come back from these situations, you take a look at what's important to you, and how privileged we are, and it's easy to take that back. But it's important to remember that we have to be a proactive society. It's interesting to me to look at Afghanistan and realize that there are countries all around the world that we haven't looked at because they haven't affected us and yet, one of these days it's possible that one of them could affect us. Had we taken a hard look at the needs of women and children in Afghanistan in 1996, it's possible that we could have prevented September 11, 2001.

YAHOO! MUSIC: How did it feel to be an American in Afghanistan? Were you welcomed in the towns you visited?

CLAY: One of the main things to remember is that people in Afghanistan did not like the Taliban, either. I was worried going in, imagining what I was going to be involved with and what I was going to find myself running into. But, it was quite different. The people were nothing but hospitable, they were completely welcoming and so wonderful. We really just had nothing but a warm welcome everywhere. I thought [Kabul] was going to be a lot more antiquated. It's a bustling metropolis. There was wireless internet in our hotel, glass elevators, it was right inside a shopping mall like we'd see in the U.S. It's not some sort of deprived and destitute city like I expected to see.

YAHOO! MUSIC: I saw in pictures of you that you'd changed your looks a bit to fit in there.

CLAY: I wanted to be culturally respectful to the country and the people there. It's kind of part of their culture to be bearded and to be dressed appropriately. But that again is kind of part of the stereotype about Afghanistan, but there's quite a bit of what I guess we'd call "Western" attire in the country.

YAHOO! MUSIC: How can young people get involved?

CLAY: Learn about the things! You have to be educated about what's going on in your world. You have to know the problems. Poverty and hunger are only the effects of larger problems.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Why is it important for celebrities to be the face of UNICEF?

CLAY: I haven't necessarily heard too much negative, but I think the main problem is the media's attention. We are a society that only pays attention to in the media. We put too much emphasis on celebrities. And even though I am one and I don't mind the attention every once in a while, it's sad that you have to have a celebrity to bring attention to these causes.

YAHOO! MUSIC: Do you still watch American Idol, and do you have an opinion on who's going to win this season?

CLAY: No comment.