The Controversial Career of Kelly Clarkson

One Direction, Little Mix, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, Olly Murs, Fifth Harmony; all mega-successful acts who have had massive careers but also had their starts on singing show's such as X Factor and American Idol, but we’re looking at the lady who paved the way for all of them, the original American Idol. Kelly Clarkson.

Kelly Clarkson won the first season of American Idol in 2002 and has had an amazing career. She has released 8 studio albums, with her biggest being “Breakaway” which has sold over 12m copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century. Kelly Clarkson as of 2020 has sold over 65m record worldwide with hit singles including Since U Been Gone, Because of You, My Life Would Suck Without You and Stronger. She has won many accolades throughout her career including 3 Grammys.

However, things haven’t been easy for the singer. We’re going to delve into the troubles of Kelly Clarkson’s successful yet sketchy and controversial career.

1 – Before Idol

Before going onto American Idol, Kelly Clarkson was working multiple jobs to finance demos that she could send to record companies but to little avail. She was rejected from Jive Records and Interscope Records while being turned down by almost every US record label for sounding 'too black' due to her demos being soulful music. To make matters even worse she moved into a flat only to have it burn down and lose everything which meant she had to move back to Texas. Which ultimately worked out in her favour as she would audition for the show that would change her life.

2 – From Justin To Kelly

After winning American Idol she won $1m and a record deal with RCA Records and had industry legend Clive Davis executive produce her debut album. But that’s not all she won, winning a singing show also meant she had to star in a film because you know that makes sense. Kelly Clarkson starred in the classic film (he says sarcastically) From Justin to Kelly. The film was received poorly by critics and underperformed at the box office. In regards to the film Kelly has shown her distaste and hatred for the film multiple times and said the face she made after winning was her basically going “oh crap now I have to do the film” and she said she cried for hours to get out of it saying:

"I cried for a solid hour on the phone with the creator of American Idol and pleaded to be let out of the contract that said I had to film From Justin to Kelly,"

3 – Miss Independent

Miss Independent was Kelly Clarkson’s first single after winning Idol, but it wasn’t always her song. According to the song's producer Rhett Lawrence, the song was pitched to Destiny’s Child who turned it down. It was then passed onto Christina Aguilera for her album Stripped and co-wrote on the song but left it off the album. Kelly’s manager at the time Simon Fuller and Clive Davis suggested that Kelly should finish off the song, which she did.

However, according to RCA Records, Kelly didn’t want the song to be on her debut album ‘Thankful’ and she argued with the label "to the point of literally crying" to get the song on the record. However, that wasn’t the only drama with the song. Kelly never knew that Christina Aguilera and Matt Morris had writing credit on the song until she looked at the liners notes for ‘Thankful’. She explained one of her A&R managers at the time purposefully kept the information from her because they did not want her to turn down the song based on Aguilera's credit. Kelly said what bothered her was that she had given interviews which made it look like she had written the song solely with the producer and made her look like a villain. Christina responded and said she does not blame Kelly but RCA, Clive Davis, and Rhett Lawrence for giving Kelly the song without her knowledge. Clive Davis stated in his memoir ‘The Soundtrack Of Our Lives’ that Christina knew the song was passed onto Kelly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS1ZW0FdoIU

4 – RCA Records & Clive David

Kelly isn’t the first artist to have a major problem with her record label but hers is by far one of the most tumultuous. For some background, Clive Davis is a major fixture in the music industry and has worked with legends such as Whitney Huston and Barry Manilow. In his memoir The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, he spoke about Kelly multiple times but one thing he said was that she didn’t want her now-signature song “Since U Been Gone” to be on her album “Breakaway” and reportedly bursting into "hysterical sobbing" about it. Kelly hit back at that claim saying that she was essentially bullied and what he said was false. She said she only cried once when she played her song “Because of You”, which she tried to get on her first album but was unsuccessful; he hated it and told her that she was a 'shitty writer who should be grateful for the gifts that he bestows upon her.' That song we should mention received critical acclaim won Best Female Video at the VMAs and is one of her best-selling sold worldwide selling over 7m copies.

5 – My December

My December was Kelly’s third studio album but her first album without Clive Davis as executive producer. This is regarded as Kelly’s underrated album or sometimes forgotten album because it is a very controversial one. As we have seen Kelly Clarkson’s writing has been undermined multiple times and this album has her listed as a writer on every song and has a darker sound then all her previous releases. A few things to note about this album is that Clive and the label were not happy with the album being released because it was not as commercial as Breakaway and there was a lot of drama that unfolded that hindered the album's success. The album only had one hit single “Never Again” which due to very strong sales debuted in the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 at No.8 but didn’t receive substantial airplay and was pulled from many stations only a couple of weeks following its release. Kelly revealed that he was offered $10m to remove 5 songs for more radio-friendly songs, which she declined.

6 – My Life Would Suck Without You

“My Life Would Suck Without You” was Kelly’s 2nd No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100, after her Idol winning single “A Moment Like This”, and was her first UK No.1 single. But why am I mentioning this song, well it has to do with the process of making the song or who made the song. Dr Luke. In the wake of the sexual assault allegations against Dr Luke, Kelly supported Kesha and revealed to a radio station that the label forced her to work with Dr Luke or they would not release her album and take a look at what she said exactly:

https://youtu.be/5eSSL8hRU_E?t=547

She lost MILLIONS on that song just make a point, as she did by releasing My December.