Kelly Clarkson on ‘American Idol’ Made The Whole World Ugly-Cry Last Night
UPDATE (2/29): The "Idol version" of "Piece By Piece" is now available for download via iTunes — grab it here.
Kelly Clarkson, American Idol's very first winner, gave the show's final collection of finalists something to aspire to last night (February 25).
After Idol named its Season 15 Top 10 on the most recent episode, Clarkson, who's just a single spicy pepper away from delivering her second child, performed a rendition of "Piece By Piece" that was so raw, judge Keith Urban — and many others outside of the cameras' limits — couldn't help but cry.
The song, the third and eponymous single off of Clarkson's seventh LP, speaks to her pain of being abandoned by her father, but the restorative hope she found in her eventual husband, and the couple's commitment to love their daughter. In the video above, she takes the radio-ready tune, reduces it to a simple piano arrangement and finds power in restraining her typically explosive range. By the end of the song, she, herself, can't help but break, but mitigates any awkwardness in typical Kelly fashion.
"Sorry," she says in the video to the crowd, which erupts into a "Kelly! Kelly!" chant. "Super pregnant and hormonal."
"It's like the finale!" she then mouths to host Ryan Seacrest, alluding to her 2002 win, when she couldn't help but break down.
And it wasn't the first time "Piece By Piece" got the better of Clarkson on stage. After getting choked up a handful of times in August 2015 while performing the track at Los Angeles' Staples Center, she announced she was pregnant.
"I was not planning on announcing this, [But] I’m totally pregnant, so I’m having a hard time," she told the crowd. "I’m totally gonna nail the s— out of this song, just gimme a second."
Immediately after last night's performance, "Piece By Piece," which hadn't cracked the Billboard Hot 100 since its November 2015 release, soared to a No. 2 standing on iTunes.
Ready your tissues, watch the performance above and share your reaction in the comments.
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