There’s good, and then there’s “Kelly Clarkson breaking her own personal Billboard record” good. It was during this week in 2009 that the (relatively) recent American Idol alum surpassed a chart-topping record that she set herself seven years earlier. After all, when you’re the pop rock GOAT, what competition do you have besides your former self?
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All these years later, Clarkson is still killing it.
The Time Kelly Clarkson Was So Good, She Broke Her Own Record
In the final week of January 2009, Kelly Clarkson made Billboard chart history for the second time. The American Idol alum had already set a chart record for the biggest jump to No. 1 with her 2002 debut single, “A Moment Like This.” Clarkson’s debut coincided with her title of first-ever American Idol champion. The singer released the track as a B-side to the single “Before Your Love” before including it on her debut full-length, Thankful.
In 2009, Clarkson broke her previous record of jumping 52 spots to the top of the chart with a song entirely unrelated to American Idol. “My Life Would Suck Without You” debuted at a humble No. 97 in 2009. By the second week, Clarkson’s fiery pop-rock anthem was riding high in the top spot. This would be the second of three No. 1 singles Clarkson has had in her career, which also includes “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” from 2011. Despite only a handful of No. 1 tracks, “My Life” helped solidify Clarkson’s status as an international pop star, garnering her first No. 1 hit in the U.K.
A decade and a half later, Clarkson proved she still has it during a 2023 Las Vegas performance. During a Friday night show of “Chemistry: An Intimate Night with Kelly Clarkson,” the singer talks to the crowd about trying to change up her set lists to make every night singularly special. “This one you might know, though, so sing along,” Clarkson said before delivering a stunning performance of the hit that got her to the top of the chart 14 years earlier. She dropped the song a key or two, allowing her more mature voice to shine on a song with just as much moxie as when she first released it.
The Pop Star Stood Her Ground, Even If It Meant Missing Out
Kelly Clarkson has built her entire record-breaking career on the ability to deliver immensely powerful songs like “My Life Would Suck Without You,” “Because of You,” “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” and “Stronger.” But she isn’t just a force of nature musically. Clarkson proved that she will stand her ground even if it means missing out on money with her 2009 chart-topper, “My Life Would Suck Without You.” The singer co-wrote the song with Claude Kelly, Max Martin, and Dr. Luke but forwent her writing credits to avoid associating her name with the controversial latter producer.
“I was making a point to the people working with me, going, ‘This is how much I didn’t want to do this,’” Clarkson told Z100. “I don’t care about money, I don’t care about, ‘Oh, you’re going to be the most famous person ever if you do this. That’s not what holds weight in my life.” Clarkson clarified that her experiences with Dr. Luke were nothing like the ones that led to the infamous Kesha v. Dr. Luke lawsuits of the mid-aughts but that she was “not a fan.”
“I love people. I think that’s apparent. It was just this one thing, and I asked not to work with Dr. Luke just because I had not a good experience with him,” Clarkson continued. “I generally love everyone. You have to really be a special kind of…for me not to like you. They brought up writing credit at the end. They were like, ‘Well, you changed the song.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t want my name near his. I want to pretend this didn’t happen in my life.”
Because if life sucked with you, you better believe Clarkson would say so.
Photo by Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Caesars Entertainment
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