Kelly Clarkson knows how to put on a show in any condition. Back in 2018, the Voice coach traveled to New York to perform at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
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The parade was the coldest on record, according to The Weather Channel. In fact, temperatures got as low as 17 degrees the morning of the parade.
Maybe it’s for that reason that Clarkson opted to perform her song “Heat,” which was released in 2017.
Wearing a fur-trimmed coat, Clarkson let her powerful voice shine through as she expertly performed the song. Brynn Cartelli, who won season 14 of The Voice as part of Team Kelly, joined the singer for the performance, contributing backing vocals.
Afterwards, Clarkson took to Instagram to confirm that she’d been singing live—not lip-syncing—during the performance.
“Umm, I don’t know if y’all know this, but that was live!” Clarkson wrote at the time, according to E! News. “Brynn Cartelli, thank you—singing in this cold weather with me. It’s so cold in New York.”
“I just wanted y’all to know, you probably all thought that sounded so good from Brynn Cartelli, but that was live, as well,” Clarkson added. “So Brynn Cartelli’s just rocking those runs this morning. I didn’t even give those runs this morning. I was like, nope!”
The Truth About Lip-Syncing at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
That same year, John Legend made headlines for revealing that all performers at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade lip-sync their performances.
“We all have to lip sync on this parade because the floats don’t have the capacity to handle the sound requirements for a live performance,” he wrote on X. “Hope y’all enjoyed it anyway.”
While that seems to contradict Clarkson’s statement, there’s an important distinction between the two. That year, Legend sang “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” on Build-A-Bear’s Discover Adventure! float, thus he was tied to the float’s capabilities.
By contrast, Clarkson did not perform on a float, but rather stood in front of Macy’s Herald Square, so audio equipment would not have been an issue.
Whether live or not, fans are in for some big performances at this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Stars including Colbie Caillat, Cynthia Erivo, Lainey Wilson, Mickey Guyton, and Russell Dickerson are all scheduled to perform.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will air NBC and Peacock Thursday, Nov. 27 starting at 8:30 a.m. across all time zones.
Photo by Eric Liebowitz/NBC
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