Clay Aiken Signs With Decca Records, New Music Due Early 2010

Wow. Good for Clay. His fans must be celebrating tonight. I’m curious what kind of music he’ll put out. Interesting!

Congrats Clay! Can’t wait to hear your new CD in early 2010!

i am really excited for this. he may have real potential now

Congrats to Clay…..to be honest I wasn’t expecting to see him sign anywhere for this year at least. I thought he’d be heading back to Broadway.

i am really excited for this. he may have real potential now

He could have real potential here, but I think for that to happen, he needs to start over totally. New label, new EP.

Congrats to Clay. I hope he comes up with a really good album.

Good for Clay, but I had no idea he put out four albums.

Good for Clay! I’d written him off as a recording artist, so I’m impressed that he got another major label deal. It’ll be interesting to hear what the new music sounds like. I wonder which part of his career will get more emphasis from now on- work on the stage or as a recording artist. I would think that TV work isn’t out of the question either.

Congratulations to Clay Aiken. Universal-Decca is a very respected label.

I expect that his new album will be wonderful and will have the support of the label. Clay took his time in deciding what label to sign with. I think he went in with his eyes open and with some reassurances that they are glad he is a part of the Universal Family.

Congrats for Clay Aiken! He is the best selling male artist from American Idol – onward to Decca!

Congrats to Clay. I can’t wait to hear him sing again. Perhaps he will even get some promo this time around.

I’m over Clay. I was OBSESSED with him back in Season 2, but he’s not at all the same person he was back then and has turned me off, but I’ll always love his voice.

This is great news! Universal-Decca includes highly respected artists in its roster. I believe this particular label will capably support Clay’s intrinsic artistry. Clay is an exceptional talent; may he realize his gifts and be heard.

This is really great news for Clay Aiken. He has so much potential as a recording artist that was untapped by RCA. Looking forward to this new CD in early 2010 and seeing exactly what DECCA will be allowing Clay to do. With the state of the music industry these days, it would behoove the labels to give their artists more artistic freedom. Clay Aiken has always been all about the voice, and it seems that those are the kind of artists that DECCA has on its roster….people who can actually sing live and sound great! Geesh, what a concept!!

LONG time lurker. This is the news that got me to finally come out of lurkdom and register to post.

Way to go Clay. Your former label didn’t do you justice. Your voice is one of the best, and you deserve to soar.

This is really incredible news. I’m very excited to see what Clay Aiken will release. He was never a pop or pop/rock singer really, which is completely RCA. This roster is impressive, and eclectic. Opera, jazz, some pop. Actually, I have a secret wish that Elliott Yamin had signed with a label like this (or maybe Blue Note), instead of his independent R&B thing. Elliott would be awesome on some jazz songs.

I’m a little surprised that it’s Clay Aiken headed to Decca, but he’s an amazing singer, and the adult contemporary pop niche he’s been in for the past few years has just seemed so lame for his very good voice. Very intrigued.

This is terrific news for Clay – I can’t wait for the new music!

What sunshinegirl said… I don’t know that I was obsessed with him in Season 2 but I did become a #’d Claymate. He never lived up to his potential as a recording artist with each successive album getting worse and worse.

However, it was his change in character that put me off most of all. He portrayed himself as someone else in Season 2. Now he’s just bizarre (the gay baby daddy with an older unwed woman thing? err…) as well having abused his fanbase for years.

As far as I’m concerned he needs to start over completely and has no cache with me as a former fan of his voice and style on Idol 2.

Fabulous News!!! Can’t wait to hear the new CD! I hope Decca gives him the promotion his beautiful VOICE deserves!!! They are LUCKY to have him on their roster! He is “one-of-a-kind”, a real Musician & Entertainer!!!

I consider Clay to have put out five and a “half” albums – the fifth being, The Very Best of Clay Aiken, and the “half” being his All Is Well Christmas EP.

I liked him on AI 2 he was my fave but can’t stand him anymore. In fact I downloaded invisible by accident a few weeks ago my mom didn’t want 2 waste money and have me delete it. I listened once and was clenching my teeth the whole time.

bleh!

Clay will never be mainstream or get radio play so a “classics” label like Decca where he can safely fly under the radar while recording and performing old fasioned tripe is perfect for him.

edit: Yes, people get to bash Clay here without his OTT fans showing up to fingerwag

i’m so happy!!! i wasn’t expecting him to get signed again. i have anyways loved his voice and i always will. i was just thinking about him earlier and how there was no news of him lately. i’m so excited!!!

and on his personal life, i could care less who he is banging, as long as he is safe and takes care of his family. and i never saw him as an angel, he is just a guy with a great voice.

I like the guy and am happy for him that he has a new label that will hopefully support him. Am really looking forward to hearing his new CD.

good luck. maybe he’ll sell some cds.

Anyone know if Clay is still repped by Simon Renshaw?

Clay will never be mainstream or get radio play so a ‘classics’  label like Decca where he can safely fly under the radar while recording and performing old fasioned tripe is perfect for him.

Precisely…..

as well having abused his fanbase for years.

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.

as well having abused his fanbase for years.

Elaborate? I always thought he was very supportive of the Claymates. Close. Idk.

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!

This is really incredible news. I’m very excited to see what Clay Aiken will release. He was never a pop or pop/rock singer really, which is completely RCA. This roster is impressive, and eclectic. Opera, jazz, some pop. Actually, I have a secret wish that Elliott Yamin had signed with a label like this (or maybe Blue Note), instead of his independent R&B thing. Elliott would be awesome on some jazz songs.

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.

I thought Clay’s version of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’  was one of the best versions of that song ever by any artist.

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.