Kelly Clarkson CD (framed)

Kelly Clarkson Biography from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a Grammy-Winning American pop singer and actress. Clarkson made her debut under RCA Records after she won the highly-publicized first season of the television series American Idol in 2002. She was originally marketed as a pop musician with her debut album Thankful (2003), which yielded her first and only U.S. number-one single. As a result of her contract with American Idol, Clarkson made a foray into film with the release of From Justin to Kelly (2003) with runner-up Justin Guarini.

Kelly Clarkson was born in Fort Worth, Texas on April 24, 1982, and grew up in the small town of Burleson Texas. She is the third and youngest child of Jeanne Ann Rose, a first grade English teacher of Greek and Scottish descent, and Stephen Michael Clarkson, a former engineer of Welsh extraction. Clarkson's siblings include her brother Jason, and her sister Alyssa. When Clarkson was six years old, her parents split up after seventeen years of marriage; her brother went to live with her father, her sister went to live with an aunt, and Clarkson remained with her mother. Following the separation, Clarkson frequently moved around Texas while her mother managed several professions in order to support the family. Clarkson has since stated that, being six years old at the time, she did not understand why her family had been constantly moving. Eventually, the family settled in Burleson, Texas where Clarkson's mother married her second husband, Jimmy Taylor.

Kelly Clarkson attended Pauline Hughes Middle School when she reached seventh grade. She had originally wanted to become a marine biologist, but during the same school year, a teacher overheard her singing in a hallway and asked her to audition for the school choir. Clarkson told the teacher that she had never received professional vocal training before. Following middle school, she attended Burleson High School and performed in musicals such as Brigadoon.

Upon graduation in 2000, Clarkson worked several occupations to finance her demo CD that she had been hoping to market toward record labels. She received few responses though, and eventually decided to move to Hollywood to seek out other opportunities in music, one of which was a mentorship under songwriter Gerry Goffin. However, Goffin fell ill, and to make ends meet, Clarkson appeared as an extra on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and played a small role in the film Issues 101, which was released in 2002. Following four months in Hollywood, Clarkson was discouraged and returned to Texas, where she worked at a cinema, and as a cocktail waitress, telemarketer and a Red Bull promoter.

American Idol
Once Clarkson returned to Burleson, several of her friends encouraged her to audition for the 2002 debut of the reality television program American Idol. She entered the competition with ten thousand others, and the judges Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson were impressed with her voice. She earned a position in the top thirty finalists and week-by-week performed a song on live television to North America. When American Idol concluded each week, the viewers would vote based on the performance they enjoyed the most. Clarkson sang a rendition of Aretha Franklin's "Respect" which garnered her a top ten position. Other songs Clarkson performed on American Idol include Aretha Franklin's (You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman, Badfinger's Without You, and Celine Dion's I Surrender.

Kelly Clarkson performed at the Washington D.C. Lincoln Memorial on September 11, 2002 following her win on American Idol. Clarkson had made it to the final two on American Idol, and on September 4, 2002, she won the competition and earned 58% of the audience vote over Justin Guarini. Choking back tears, Clarkson performed the ballad A Moment Like This, the song written for the winner of American Idol, which would subsequently appear on her debut album Thankful. The song's music video was filmed in an abandoned theatre and incorporated short scenes of Clarkson performing on Idol. When released as a single in October 2002, it set a still-standing record on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart when it rose from number fifty-two to number one. This achievement was largely due to the impact from Idol as the CD single managed to sell 236,000 copies in its first week of sales in the U.S.; it spent five weeks at number one in Canada, and remains Clarkson's only number-one there.

Shortly following the completion of the first season of American Idol, Kelly Clarkson was accused of working with a record company. American Idol's rules stated that a contestant was not allowed to compete on the program if they had been linked to a record company. However, she was cleared of all allegations, as she had only had a contract in order to conduct demonstration work.

In December 2003, a competition titled World Idol was held in London, England, gathering the winners of the first seasons of Idol from across the globe. Clarkson placed second behind Norwegian Idol Kurt Nilsen. She performed Aretha Franklin's A Natural Woman. Because she left immediately after the competition, she was chided by some in the media for what they saw as poor sportsmanship - read more.

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