Kelly Brianne Clarkson aka Kelly biography

Kelly Clarkson is an American singer/songwriter who rose to fame as the first winner of "American Idol."

Kelly Clarkson was raised by her mother who taught English. Kelly was discovered by her 7th grade choir teacher Ms. Cindy Glenn and found that music was something that she loved.

Kelly began singing in her high school productions appearing in the lead of Brigadon and 7 brides for 7 brothers. Kelly has maintained multiple jobs including door to door sales, movie theater employee, waitress, red bull promoter, telemarketing. Kelly was offered scholarships to college based on her singing talent but instead decided to move to LA and try to make a career for herself. She was offered two separate deals but turned both down when they insisted that she change her image or lose weight. While in LA Kelly worked as an extra on Sabrina the Teen Age Witch. Kelly worked with Gerry Goffin, husband of Carol King, cutting demos until he became ill. In 2002 Kelly's apartment burned down and she returned to Texas to regroup.

In 2002, Kelly auditioned for the inaugural season of "American Idol." with the encouragement of her friend Jessica. On September 4, 2002 Kelly took the crown of American Idol with 58% of the vote. She was awarded a million dollar recording contract and set out on the American Idol Live tour with the other top 10 contestants from the show. Kelly filmed "From Justin to Kelly" with runner-up and friend Justin Guarini. The film was a box office failure written by Kym Fuller, brother to Idol creator and Kelly's manager, Simon Fuller. While Kelly has stated that she made the film solely out of contractual obligation she admits the movie was fun to work on.

In 2003, Kelly competed in "World Idol". She came in second behind Norwegian "Idol" Kurt Nilsen.

Kelly's first single, "A Moment Like This", sold 236,000 in the first week of its release in the US and broke a record held by the Beatles by jumping from #52 all the way to #1 in a single week. She followed that single with her debut album, "Thankful", which spawned the #1 hit Miss Indepednent which spent 9 weeks at #1 on the Pop charts. Thankful has sold more than 3 million worldwide.

Her sophomore album, "Breakaway", was wildly successful, earning 2 Grammys and spawning 4 #1 songs and another single that was a Top 10 hit. The single Breakaway, from the Princess Diaries 2 soundtrack spent 21 weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary charts, tieing a record held by Celine Dion. Breakaway (the album) spent an amazing 62 consecutive weeks in the top 20 Billboard top 200 album chart. One single, "Because of You", was written by Kelly at the age of 16 when struggling with her family dynamics and this song went on to reach #1 on the world singles chart. The album has sold 11 million copies worldwide.

In 2005/2006 Kelly was the most played artist on radio and she set a record by having at least one song in the top 40 for 111 consecutive weeks. Kelly has won countless awards including a People's choice award for favorite female singer, three MTV video music awards as well as 11 Billboard awards and multiple American Music Awards.

Kelly demanded more creative control in "My December", her third album. A power struggle occured when her production and management teams insisted she maintain her pop sound and image and she felt the need to write what she had been through in the past two years. In spite of the controversy, her album debuted at #2 and has sold almost 2 million copies world wide. Never Again was the only single released from My December and it debuted at #8 on the Hot 100 and has sold almost a million digital downloads to date.

She teamed up with Reba McEntire to cover her song "Because of You" and the song peaked at #2 on the country charts. Kelly and Reba were nominated for a 2008 Grammy for "Best Country Collaboration With Vocals".

Kelly is currently in the studio recording her 4th album. She has written and recorded songs with Ryan Tedder of One Republic and the album is scheduled to be released in the fourth quarter.