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Kelly
Clarkson
- Thankfully, Kelly Clarkson’s childhood
dream to be a marine biologist did not
come true, and instead, she became a
household name when her soulful voice
captured the hearts and minds of millions
when she was voted the American Idol in
September of 2002.
The twenty-year-old
from Texas performed live every week for
ten weeks to an audience of 25 million on
one of America’s most successful TV show’s
ever. Besides the fact that Clarkson never
had a professional singing lesson, she
received 57% of the vote in the final head
to head. In fact, her singing voice was to
her, such a natural and normal part of her
life, it didn’t strike her that she had
something so special. The enormity and
beauty of her voice was recognized quite
by accident.
At 13 years old, a late bloomer by choral
standards, Kelly was singing to herself in
the corridor at Pauline Hughes Middle
School in Burleson, Texas, when a teacher
asked her to consider joining the choir.
“Nobody really realized I had a talent
until I got in there. My teacher really
pushed me since I was behind everyone else
who had been doing it since 4th grade.
From there on, I had a niche.”
Her classical training through the choir
was, as she describes it, “fundamental to
me being able to use my voice and adapt it
to different styles of music”. She
developed quickly and before long was
wooing audiences in state and regional
competitions, whilst earning a living as a
waitress, pharmacy assistant, movie
theatre and even at the zoo!
It was a strange twist of fate that really
put Kelly on the path to music. Having
moved to Los Angeles after graduation she
began sending out her demo tape trying to
get into the music industry. This,
however, came to an abrupt end when her
apartment burned down leaving her nearly
destitute. The young singer headed on a
24-hour drive home with nothing.
It was her best friend Jessica who was
determined for Kelly not to give up and
suggested she try out for American Idol.
Kelly knew nothing about it, “I went and
tried out for fun and here I am!”
With her own idols ranging from Bette
Midler and Reba McIntyre to Gwen Stefani
and Aerosmith, it’s not surprising her
voice can turn to such a wide variation of
styles. Signed to 19 Entertainment and
RCA, her album will debut in 2003, and
with her debut single “A Moment Like
This/Before Your Love” double A-side
breaking two world records in its first
week alone, Kelly Clarkson is firmly on
the music map and is set to shake up the
industry.
Her first single smashed straight into
number one in the Billboard charts in its
first week and she hasn’t looked back
since. The final 10 contestants from the
show re-united for the “American Idol
Tour”, a 30 date, 7 week Arena tour which
took them from Seattle to New York playing
to over 200,000 fans.
Kelly has already started to bare her soul
on her album which will showcase the
diversity of her voice in addition to her
collaborations with many of today’s
biggest writers including Rhett Lawrence
and Walter A.. Kelly has been
concentrating on edgy, R&B flavored tracks
and yet would love to move into country or
even do Broadway one day. “Maybe something
that I write or sing will touch someone
and then it’s all worth it. Why should you
choose a genre? I love it all!”
And as if the music wasn’t enough, Simon
Fuller struck a 15 million dollar movie
feature deal with Fox allowing Kelly to
showcase her acting and singing talents
with American Idol runner up Justin
Guarini. In January 2003, Kelly will star
in her very own movie, “From Justin to
Kelly” for release in April 2003. “This is
an amazing opportunity,” she said. “One
day I would like to work behind the
cameras too producing my own work.”
“I’m not materialistic, but I am
ambitious. I’d love to break globally and
can’t wait to go to England. There is so
much ahead of me and I’m really grateful
for that. It all seems to be happening so
quickly that it’s hard to stop and think.
For now, I’m just glad to be in this
position and to be able to have a job
where I use my singing voice every day. I
knew when I watched Jaws that marine
biology just wasn’t for me!”
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