Each of us has our own story on how we first knew our man, Clay Aiken. Most of you say that you fell in love with Clay when he opened his mouth and sang “Always and Forever”. And every time he performs in the Idol stage just makes you fall in love with h

But mine is slightly different or maybe completely different.

American Idol Season 2 was aired by 2003 (I was 11) but by that time, we don’t have Cable TV. What we see in our television were just local shows. So I didn’t have any clue on who was Clay Aiken during that period of time.

I’ve always been a fan of rock, hip-hop and RnB music as a teenager. The music of My Chemical Romance, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Snoop Dog, and the like became my anthem. I’ve never heard of This Is the Night, Invisible, The Way, Measure of a Man. And I’d never thought that Clay Aiken is existing.

My anthem continued until September 2007.

I am a super fan of Kelly Clarkson. I mean, I have her albums and she‘s got a couple of radio plays every time. And I extremely love her edginess and her talent.

One day, I got bored in surfing the internet for 3hours. I decided to go to youtube and search for Kelly Clarkson videos. And I did. I watched some of them. But there was this one video that attracted me the most. Its headline was “Open Arms – Kelly Clarkson & Clay Aiken duet”. And I was like… “Ooohhh. I should try to listen to this one.”

When Kelly sang the first verse, I was like … “Yeah. She’s really got pipes”. And then (for the 2nd verse), out of nowhere, came a more powerful, flawless, and amazing voice. I think my heart stopped beating at that time. I was just so amazed by the wonder of this angelic, clear voice. Everybody in the audience was screaming at the top of their lungs, were jumping off their seats. And I was like... “Wow! I can’t believe that this voice can still overpower the screaming of thousands of people”.

I was stunned. I never would have ever thought that voice could have existed.

It was Clay Aiken’s voice.

I ditched all my previous musical influences and concentrated on Clay’s wonderful talent. I reviewed the video many many times and witness the magic again and again. I searched for him at the youtube and discovered lots of videos of him performing. And that’s when I found out that he was on American Idol Season 2.

I kept searching facts about him on the web such as his complete name, bday, likes and dislikes, achievements, etc. But what amazed me the most was his charitable works, his UNICEF ambassadorship, his sense of humor and the kind of man that he is. From then on, every day is just a Clay day to me. I gathered pictures of him. I bought his albums. Luckily, I still found a copy of MOAM though 5 years have passed. I’ve bought ATDW a year after its official release. And OMWH as well. I don’t have MCWL but I’m still searching, I’m not losing any hope. I’ve got a Spamalot Playbill which is a gift from my friend/classmate because she was able to see Spamalot. She said that she was so happy because Clay Aiken is just 20ft. away from her face. Haha.

Yes. I do have some regrets and I wanted to turn back time to 2003 to see all TV appearances and not even miss one. But’ I’m enjoying my ride now. And I’ll I could say is that I’m ready for more.

Rej