Ruben Studdard in Oakland

Ruben Studdard is an American R&B, soul and gospel singer, born in Frankfurt in 1978 and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He won the second season of American Idol in 2003 and followed it with the album Soulful, which includes “Flying Without Wings” and “Sorry 2004.” The American Idols Live! Tour 2003 took him into arenas across the United States after the televised competition. In 2018, he and fellow finalist Clay Aiken appeared at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre in Ruben & Clay’s First Annual Christmas Carol Family Fun Pageant Spectacular Reunion Show. They reunited in 2023 for Twenty | The Tour, a joint concert tour marking 20 years since their American Idol season.