American Idols begin chart battle

NEW YORK (Amazon/American Idol websites) - American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken could upstage winner Ruben Studdard in the charts as the pair have released their debut singles on the same day.

Aiken's cover of Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water is reported to be outselling Studdard's Flying Without Wings, originally recorded by Irish boy band Westlife.
Amazon's sales chart puts Aiken at number one, with Studdard trailing at number nine.

In the American Idol 2 final on US television in May, Studdard beat Aiken by just 130,000 votes out of a total of 24 million.

Album plans

More than 38 million people tuned in to watch them compete after thousands of hopefuls had been whittled down to just two.
Studdard and Aiken will be guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show on US TV on Tuesday.

Justin Guarini - the runner-up in the first American Idol series - is also due to appear on the show. He is releasing his debut album on the same day.
Meanwhile, Studdard and Aiken are looking to September to release their first albums. A third series of American Idol is being planned for 2004.