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Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter, author, and television personality. She rose to fame after winning the first season of American Idol in 2002, which earned her a record deal with RCA. Her debut single, “A Moment Like This”, topped the US Billboard Hot 100, and became the country’s best selling single of 2002. It was included on her debut studio album, Thankful (2003), which debuted atop the Billboard 200. Trying to reinvent her image, Clarkson parted ways with Idol management and shifted to pop rock for her second studio album, Breakaway (2004). Supported by four US top-ten singles – the title track, “Since U Been Gone”, “Behind These Hazel Eyes”, and “Because of You” – Breakaway sold over 12 million copies worldwide and won two Grammy Awards.
Clarkson took further creative control for her third studio album, My December (2007), co-writing all of its tracks and becoming its executive producer. However, her label was dissatisfied with the album’s darker rock music and promoted it reluctantly. Clarkson’s fourth and fifth studio albums, All I Ever Wanted (2009) and Stronger (2011), returned to a lighter tone and pop rock sound, with the former becoming her second US number-one album and the latter making her the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album twice. Both albums spawned a Hot 100 number-one single: “My Life Would Suck Without You”, which holds the record for the biggest jump to number one in the chart’s history, and “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”, which became her best-selling single worldwide. Clarkson then became the first American woman to achieve the best-selling Christmas album of the year with Wrapped in Red (2013). Its single, “Underneath the Tree”, was named the ASCAP’s most popular Christmas song released in the 21st century. Her seventh studio album, Piece by Piece (2015), debuted at number-one in the US, while its title track reached the top ten. After leaving RCA and signing with Atlantic in 2016, Clarkson released her soul-influenced eighth album, Meaning of Life (2017), and her second Christmas album, When Christmas Comes Around… (2021).Clarkson has sold over 28 million albums and 54 million singles worldwide. She has 11 top-ten singles in the US, and nine top-ten singles in the UK, Canada, and Australia. She became the first artist in history to top each of Billboard‘s pop, adult contemporary, adult pop, country, and dance charts. Clarkson also served as a coach on The Voice from its fourteenth season to the twenty-first season, and since 2019, has hosted her own talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show. Among her numerous accolades, Clarkson has received three MTV Video Music Awards, four American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards, five Daytime Emmy Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Billboard has hailed Clarkson as “one of pop music’s greatest singers”, and honored her with the Powerhouse Award, while VH1 ranked her nineteenth on their list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music.
