As the New Year rolled around, American singer-songwriter and television personality Kelly Clarkson shared her own struggles and achievements from 2023 through her daytime variety talk show and her interviews with PEOPLE magazine.
Kelly Clarkson had some really outstanding moments in her 2023, but if you ask the 41-year-old singer, she highlights one core memory: Her Las Vegas residency in August when she had her son Remington Alexander, age 7, and daughter River Rose, age 9, join her onstage.
Clarkson, who shares her children with her ex-husband Brandon Blackstock, explains the conception of this idea to the PEOPLE magazine in this week’s cover story: “They were a little nervous, but it was their idea, not mine.”
River chose to perform a duet of her mother’s classic hit, “Heartbeat Song,” in front of a packed audience. Remington on the other hand, enthusiastically performed a backup dance while Clarkson sang “Whole Lotta Woman.”
“I was like, ‘I feel like how you’re looking at me is how you watch Spider-Man,'” Clarkson remembers as her children watched their mother enthrall the audience. Clarkson also recalls, “It caught me completely off guard, and it was the most magical moment because they were so happy and at ease. They were just in awe.”
Kelly Clarkson’s Rise To Fame
Upon winning the first season of American Idol in 2002 with her exceptional performances, Kelly Clarkson went on to distinguish herself in the entertainment industry, especially through her American daytime television variety talk show called ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’.
The series, produced and distributed by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, got renewed for a fifth season on 16 October 2023 and has aired over 750 episodes till date.
It has earned fifteen Daytime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment and Outstanding Talk Show as well as Clarkson winning Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host in 2020, 2021, and 2022, and Outstanding Talk Show Host in 2023.
Including the prestigious Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment and Outstanding Talk Show awards, the show has won a total of 15 Daytime Emmy Awards. Three years in a row, in 2020, 2021, and 2022, Clarkson won the awards for the Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host category.
The name of her Vegas residency, which added more shows through the winter, is named after her most recent album, a collection of songs written about the deterioration of her nearly seven-year marriage to Blackstock, her former manager.
Her talk show recently also won six Daytime Emmy Awards on 15 December 2023, including outstanding daytime talk series and host for Clarkson.
Queen of covers 👑 https://t.co/ToKJCUTqdQ pic.twitter.com/ewUJ5fWVuO
— The Kelly Clarkson Show (@KellyClarksonTV) January 3, 2024
Overcoming A Failed Marriage
Having released ten studio albums, she has also received three Grammy nominations (her most recent album ‘Chemistry’ is up for best pop vocal album), worked as a coach on The Voice, and started her own talk show, for which she moved to New York City for the fifth season from Los Angeles.
When she started writing her tenth studio album about her struggles with depression and a failed marriage, she told the PEOPLE magazine, “I didn’t see it other than: This is my outlet. I’m a let-go person; I don’t hold grudges. So it was really delving into what happened in my life and why—and what am I going to do about it?”
She added, “I cannot express how appreciative I feel for having that kind of healthy outlet. Because the level of depression and things that come with divorce or grieving is extraordinarily hard. You feel alone, and it’s just a blessing to be able to have that outlet for those emotions that are overwhelming.”
Releasing the album “[was] like, ‘I’m taking my power back,’” Clarkson expressed, adding, “That sounds very therapy, but that’s because I love therapy, and I think it’s important to have those tools to navigate your life and relationships.”
As a single mother in New York City creating her own community, Clarkson—who also serves as a Wayfair ambassador—is particularly appreciative of fresh starts these days. She says, “Sometimes you don’t know what life has in store for you, and you think your life is going to go one way, and it’s OK that it doesn’t. You never know how beautiful that might be.”
