This week, DJ Louie is joined by music journalist and co-host of the podcast Legends Only, Bradley Stern, to discuss the original American Idol, Kelly Clarkson! First, Louie and Bradley discuss Kelly’s legendary run on Idol, from being deemed “forgettable” by Simon Cowell to winning the show and America’s hearts in a landslide victory, her display of down-home affability and incredible versatility on the show, equally adept at Motown as she was at rock, show-tunes and pop ballads, her first album, 2003’s Thankful, which played up her chameleonic and powerful vocal talent but played down her singular personality to middling results, how she fought tooth and nail to take more control of her artistry on her juggernaut second album, 2004’s more rock-oriented classic Breakaway, and calcified her on-record scorned-by-resilient persona on its signature hit, the iconic kiss-off anthem “Since U Been Gone”. Louie and Bradley then cover Kelly’s legendary and very public battle with label-boss Clive Davis over her third record, 2007’s largely self-penned My December, her mea-culpa for that defiance, 2009’s All I Ever Wanted, how Kelly eventually reached a detente with the powers that be in the 2010s and unlocked a very successful second decade of her pop career, and how all the qualities that made us fall in love with her twenty years ago as a cocktail waitress with a big voice and a dream on Idol lead to a third wave of her career as a beloved daytime talk show host, as well as to her viral covers series, “Kellyoke”. Finally, Louie and Bradley rank Kelly Clarkson in the official Pop Pantheon. 

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