Twenty years after sharing the stage during the American Idol season 2 finale as opponents, Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard once again shared the same Idol stage, but this time they appeared on the show not as opponents, but as friends.
The season 2 winner and runner-up made a special appearance during the show’s season 21 finale where they performed a duet of “The Impossible Dream.” This season’s finalists, Tongi and Danielle, provided backup vocals.
Since the two met 20 years ago on Idol, they have reunited several times. Most recently they’ve gotten together for a 20-year anniversary tour.
“We don’t get to choose our family,” Aiken wrote in an Instagram post last yeard celebrating his friendship with Studdard. “Most family is predetermined by blood; some are predestined by God to come into our lives. I’ve got one brother who was born into my family and one brother who the good Lord introduced me to in 2003.”
The Idol alums recently spoke to Variety about their decades-long friendship.
Studdard recalled meeting Aiken during Hollywood Week.
“We were going through the process and every day people were getting cut and the second day my fraternity brother who made it to Hollywood got cut and I was really bummed about it,” he said. “I go to the bar and there’s Clay holding court with like 10 girls and so I went over and introduced myself because he clearly needed some help.”
“He thought I was a player,” Aiken chimed in.
But it wasn’t until there were 32 contestants left that Studdard and Aiken crossed paths again. Once they all were allowed to have their phones back they exchanged numbers and “Clay kept up with everybody.”
Both men remember being equally impressed with each other’s talent.
“Ruben always had and still has an energy that people wanted to come and be around him,” Aiken said.
While the two were on the show they were seen as rivals, today they are anything but.
“When we did the Broadway show, we opened it with this fake competition as a joke. At the very end of this show, just in the very last note, we kind of pretend that we’re competing against each other and as I was doing it last night, I thought, ‘I wonder if people even get this anymore? Do they understand?’ It’s so natural that we’re together,” Aiken said.
It was awesome seeing these two reunite on the American Idol stage once again. I loved their season so much, and I’m so happy to see that they’ve maintained a friendship over the past 20 years.
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