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Clay Aiken is an American popular music singer who rose to fame on the American Idol television program, and who has become the most successful second-place finisher in that show's history.

Television viewers' first glimpse of Aiken came during the audition episodes at the beginning of American Idol's second season. The show's judges first saw Aiken as a nerdy type unlikely to be any kind of idol, but they were immediately impressed once he began singing Heatwave's "Always and Forever." The clip of the judges' surprise during this audition performance was replayed many times over the course of the competition.

Aiken appearing on the 2006 American Idol Season 5 FinaleAiken made it to the round-of-32, but was cut from the show on his first try, a performance of Journey's "Open Arms." He finished third in his semifinal group of eight behind eventual winner Ruben Studdard and eventual third-place finisher Kimberley Locke. However, during the "wild card" round, Aiken's well-received performance of Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" propelled him into the final 12. Within the first few weeks (aided by a makeover from the show's producers), Aiken and Studdard emerged as the clear favorites of both the judges and the fans. While Aiken was especially noted for his performance of ballads, such as the dramatically-lit rendition of Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire," his upbeat performances, including The Foundations' "Build Me Up Buttercup," were also met with considerable enthusiasm from the voters.

On 21 May 2003, Aiken came in a close second in the contest, with Studdard winning by a narrow margin--just over 130,000 votes out of more than 24,000,000 votes cast. The result was somewhat controversial as some hypothesized that Idol's voting system was incapable of handling the number of attempted calls, thereby possibly yielding a random result. In an interview prior to the start of the fifth season of American Idol, Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed for the first time that Aiken had led the fan voting every week from the Wild Card week onward until the finale, when the possibly-random voting result gave Studdard the win. Though officially Aiken was the show's "first runner-up," he has since gone on to be the second season's best-selling star.

Some of Aiken's fans have been referred to as "Claymates," a name that originated on the message boards during the second season of American Idol. However, the term is not embraced by all within the fandom and some portion of the group has been criticized at times as being obsessive, both in the media and by Aiken himself. In most cases, however, Aiken defends his fans as just being "enthusiastic". Another variation for Canadian fans is "Claynadians" and for Asian Clay fans, "Claysians." Male fans began their own group and call themselves "The ClayDawgs". The umbrella name including all of his many fan groups is "The Clay Nation." The fandom includes a wide range of ages.

Aiken was voted the Favorite Reality Star of 2003 by TV Guide readers, and “the most-loved reality star of all time” in a TV Guide poll conducted in the summer of 2005.

In February 2006 Aiken was voted "Favorite American Idol" by People Magazine with 69% of the vote.

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