Getty Kelly Clarkson
“The Voice” coach Kelly Clarkson went live across her different social media pages on Friday, June 2 to celebrate the release of her latest single, “I Hate Love (featuring Steve Martin)”.
While on Instagram Live, the “American Idol” champion answered fan questions about a range of topics, including her past work, what plans she has for her future music, and her upcoming 10-show Las Vegas residency.
“That’s hard,” Clarkson said after reading a fan question about her favorite song she’s ever written, “I’ll just limit it down to [this upcoming album, “Chemistry”]. I’d probably say ‘Lighthouse'”, which is the 9th track on “Chemistry”, which comes out on June 23, 2023. Clarkson was coincidentally wearing a hat that said “Lighthouse” in the video, which she said was unplanned.
While talking about “Lighthouse”, Clarkson gained inspiration for her favorite all-time song she’s written. “There’s a song called ‘Maybe’, that I actually wrote with [collaborator] Aben Eubanks, my guitarist,” Clarkson said, “That song was an intense song for me to write, and I was really just needing to get stuff out, but I think why it’s one of my favorites is there’s no rhyme or reason. It’s just a stream of consciousness.” Though never a single, “Maybe” is the 9th song off of Clarkson’s 2007 album “My December”.
Kelly Clarkson Wants to Write a Country Album Next
Later in the live video, Clarkson reacted to another fan’s comment requesting she release more country music.
“A country album would be amazing,” the singer said, “I really want one too. I’ll do it. I’m definitely going to do it, and honestly, I have a bunch of songs that I’ve written. It’s all about timing and it’s really hard to fit everything in. But I’m going to do the kind of country album I want to make, so I don’t know if that’s going to be what people are going to love.”
One critic that Clarkson may need to win over is her friend and now former “Voice” co-star Blake Shelton. Ahead of Blake’s 23rd and final season on “The Voice” (which he and Clarkson both lost to newcomer Niall Horan), he appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and told the host jokingly that Clarkson “didn’t make it in country music.”
Shelton’s comment was said in jest, as he and Clarkson have collaborated numerous times over their careers, with Clarkson having joined Shelton’s 2012 Christmas album “Cheers, It’s Christmas” for a duet on the song “There’s a New Kid in Town”. Clarkson also shared in her Instagram live that she and Shelton have done many one-off live performances together.
The ‘Vibe’ of Kelly Clarkson’s Las Vegas Shows Has Changed
Clarkson also spoke about her upcoming 10-show residency in Las Vegas, which is set for July and August of this year. Clarkson noted for her fans that “The vibe of the Vegas show is very different from the vibe it was going to be pre-COVID. Pre-this album and my life and how it was a dumpster fire for a minute, I had a whole huge Vegas idea,” however after completing her record she decided she wanted to give the concerts a more “intimate” and “storyteller” feeling.
Clarkson was able to practice for her Vegas shows when she performed a one-night-only engagement at the Belasco in Los Angeles on her birthday in April 2023. At her Belasco show, Clarkson played through her new album, “Chemistry” for the first time in front of an audience, with audience members having their phones locked away during the performances to prevent the songs leaking before the album’s release.
READ NEXT: ‘The Voice’ Finalist Announces New Music