Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson was the girl from Fort Worth who won the first season of American Idol and then refused to be just a TV contestant. Signed to RCA Records in 2002, she opened with "A Moment Like This", and no other single in the US outsold it that year, and her debut album Thankful, soaked in R&B and gospel, bowed at number one on the Billboard 200.

Then she did the smart thing and plugged in. Breakaway swapped the ballads for pop rock with real guitars, and "Since U Been Gone" was the moment it clicked: tense, clipped verses that explode into a shout-along chorus, as close to punk-pop fury as mainstream radio got that year. "Behind These Hazel Eyes" and "Because of You" kept the run going, and Breakaway became one of the biggest-selling albums of the 21st century. The darker, rockier My December met a lukewarm response, but All I Ever Wanted and Stronger brought her back to the top with "My Life Would Suck Without You" and "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)".

She is, above everything, a voice: huge, flexible and able to cross formats at will, and she was the first act ever to reach number one on four different Billboard airplay charts: pop, country, dance and adult contemporary. Grammys for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album followed in 2006, with another Best Pop Vocal Album win in 2013, and her record sales have gone past 82 million worldwide. Later she coached on The Voice and hosted her own daytime talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.