by Stephi Wild – http://www.broadwayworld.com

Clay Aiken, the singer and actor who got his start on
American Idol before going on to perform on Broadway, is opening up about how
his life and career changed after coming out as gay in 2008. Aiken chatted
with People in a new interview, the same publication where he
chose to publicize his coming out with a cover story that ran in September
2008.

Aiken shared that, after the cover went public, he lost “50 percent” of his
fan base.

“Back then it was a big deal,” he said, speaking on how the public’s reception
to celebrities coming out has drastically changed in 16 years. “We are in a
very different time.”

At the time of his coming out, Aiken was starring on Broadway in Spamalot, and
he shared that the ticket sales dropped after his bombshell People cover hit
the news stands.

“The first four months that I was in, the show was selling out, standing room
only. You can actually look at the ticket sales the week after that cover came
out,” he says. “It went from selling very well to the week after the cover
came out, the ticket sales dropped. Spamalot ended up closing a few months
after that.”

BroadwayWorld’s grosses report shows that the production
went from bringing in $642,920 and selling at 82% capacity in the week ending
on August 31, 2008, to $318,167 and 41% the following week.

However, Aiken said that he does not regret his decision, and that he is happy
that the world has changed since then.

“There’s progress and it means that as a country, we’re headed in the right
direction,” he said.

Clay Aiken most recently returned to Broadway in 2018
in “Ruben & Clay’s 1st Annual Christmas Carol Family Fun Pageant Spectacular
Reunion Show”, ten years after his critically lauded debut in Monty Python’s
Spamalot. On the heels of “American Idol,” he became the first artist in
history to have his first single debut at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. His
subsequent album, “Measure of A Man,” also debuted at #1 with the highest
first week sales by a debut artist.

His 2004 holiday release, “Merry Christmas with Love,” set a record for the
fastest selling holiday album of the SoundScan era and remains tied for the
highest charting debut of a holiday album in Billboard history. He served 9
years as a UNICEF Ambassador and, in 2003, he co-founded, with Diane Bubel,
what is now the National Inclusion Project to advocate and increase
opportunities for children with disabilities to be included in extracurricular
activities (such as summer camps and after-school programs) with their non-
disabled peers.

His new Christmas album, ‘Christmas Bells are Ringing’, was released on
November 22nd.

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