Tricks of the trade. Kelly Clarkson offered some meaningful advice about not letting emotions affect a performance.
During the Knockout Rounds on The Voice, which aired on Monday, April 24, Clarkson, 41, weighed in on contestants Ross Clayton and Jerome Godwin III when they took the stage. Clayton chose Steely Dan‘s “Dirty Work” as his song while Godwin went with a rendition of Lewis Capaldi‘s “Someone You Loved.”
The coaches noted that Godwin made a mistake by choosing an emotional track instead of his usual upbeat performances. Clarkson, for her part, questioned if the Team Niall contestant had a “wall up” when singing for her, Blake Shelton, Niall Horan, Chance the Rapper and Mega Mentor Reba.
“Sometimes, I feel a song so much that I have to go dead inside,” she explained about her own process as a singer. “‘Cause I don’t want to bawl.”
The American Idol alum recently opened up about letting her personal life inspire her upcoming album, Chemistry.
“It was a very personal record,” Clarkson, whose divorce from Brandon Blackstock was finalized in March 2022, shared during an Instagram Live earlier this month. “It was very good for me to be able to experience the whole relationship on this album, because to diminish something to just bad would be a disservice.”
According to the talk show host, she went back and forth about addressing the end of her marriage in her music. “I was very worried about it because I didn’t know if I’d want to talk about it all the time, ’cause I don’t enjoy that,” she continued. “But I think that it’s very important to still be the same artist I’ve been my whole career, which is very open and honest.”
Clarkson raised eyebrows when she appeared to slam Blackstock, 46, in new songs released ahead of her album. “I don’t need somebody to hold me / Don’t need somebody to love me / Don’t need somebody to pick these pieces up / I put together my broken / Let go of the pain I’ve been holdin’ / Don’t need to need somebody / When I got me,” she sings on the “Me” track.
The former couple tied the knot in 2013 after one year of dating. They went on to expand their family with kids River Rose, 8, and Remington Alexander, 7, before calling it quits following nearly seven years of marriage.
Clarkson and Blackstock continued to make headlines for their lengthy legal battle over a Montana property. The Texas native, who was declared legally single in September 2021 amid the divorce proceedings, was later ordered to pay Blackstock nearly $200,000 per month, including temporary payments of $150,000 each month in spousal support. In addition to paying an extra $45,601 per month for their children, the “Stronger” singer was granted primary custody.
In March 2022, Us Weekly confirmed that Clarkson legally changed her name to Kelly Brianne. According to legal docs obtained by Us, the “Because of You” singer noted that her “desire” to go by her first and middle name was because she thought it “more fully reflects who I am.”
Since the split, Clarkson explained that her kids remain her first priority. “I think I am my mother’s child, and I’m raising very independent children,” she said on the “Angie Martinez IRL” podcast in March. “They will be out the door as soon as they’re able and capable. They’re very independent.”
The actress recalled doing check-ins with her children in the aftermath of the divorce. “I literally ask my kids every night when we’re snuggling, ‘Are you happy? And if you’re not, what could make you happier?’” she added. “Sometimes they’ll say — especially the past two years — a lot of it — and it kills me — and I want them to be honest, so I don’t ever say, ‘Oh God, don’t tell me that.’ But a lot of times it would be like, ‘You know, I’m just really sad. I wish Mommy and Daddy were in the same house.’ And they’re really honest about it. And I’m raising that kind of individual.”
