Clay Aiken will sing the American national anthem at the NHL All-Star Game on Sunday (4 p.m. ET, Versus).

"We all rally behind the home team," says Aiken, a native of Raleigh, N.C., where the game will be held. Raleigh got the Carolina Hurricanes, which had been the Hartford Whalers, in 1997, and the team won the Stanley Cup in 2006. "I don't think anybody in Raleigh knew much about hockey until the Hurricanes came to town, but now everybody has learned to love it."

Clay says the entire town is excited to host the game and the surrounding weekend of festivities, which begin Friday.

"We built a brand-new airport [terminal]," he says. "It specifically opened Sunday to be ready for the all-star game. They've put as much energy as they can into this event."

The Canadian Tenors will perform the Canadian national anthem and rock band 3 Doors Down have the first-intermission performance.

Hurricanes center Eric Staal will captain one team, and Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings will helm the other. "They're going to pick their teams like they do on the playground," Clay says. "We've got two Hurricanes who are all-stars, Eric and one of our goalies, Cam Ward. And Eric Staal's brother Marc is an all-star, so I imagine he'll pick him."

Also, Clay will start his Tried & True Tour Feb. 10 in Miami.

"I like being relatively laid-back and casual," he says. "I don't put too much production into it, especially this time. This is Moon River, Unchained Melody and What Kind of Fool Am I. These songs don't need a lot of flashy light stuff. I like to come out and sing the songs, and I like talking to the audience."

Most of Clay's set will focus on tunes from his recent albums of standards, but he says he has a few surprises up his sleeve.

"Most of these songs are big-band types songs," he says. "I think we're going to do a medley of songs that are on the radio today, but we're going to do them in a big-band style."

Such as? Lady Gaga's Poker Face is on the short list. So is Kenny Chesney's She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy.

"They're definitely songs you would not expect to hear in big-band style."