Photo SpecialBecoming ... Clay Aiken

See how the singer went from crooning in his living room to filling stadiums. By Serena Kappes

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MICROPHONE CHECK

"Clay was always the entertainer," says mom Faye Parker of Aiken (left, at age 2). "Give him anything that looked like a microphone, and he'd perform." The singer (right, on the Today show in March) has come a long way away from his homespun gigs: He launches his Joyful Noise tour Nov. 21.

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