26. Clay Aiken
American singer/songwriter, actor, producer and author Clay Aiken rose to fame on the second season of American Idol in 2003 as runner-up to Ruben Studdard. RCA Records offered him a recording contract and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released in October 2003. Since then Aiken has released four more albums on the RCA label and launched nine tours, authored a New York Times best-selling book Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life, created the National Inclusion Project for children with disabilities, became a UNICEF ambassador in 2004, and was appointed for a two-year term to the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Aiken made his Broadway debut playing Sir Robin on Monty Python’s Spamalot. On August 8th 2008 Aiken announced the birth of his son Parker Foster Aiken, to mother James Foster, sister of Aiken’s record producer David Foster. In a September 2008 issue of People magazine, after years of speculation, Aiken revealed he is gay. Since then Aiken has participated in the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS campaign, spoken at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in North Carolina, and participated in Cyndi Lauper’s “Give a Damn Campaign.”
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