Kelly Clarkson announces incredible new career move: ‘I’ve earned it’

Kelly Clarkson has tirelessly worked in music since becoming the breakout star of American Idol’s first season in 2002.

Now, the ‘Since U Been Gone’ singer is setting her sights on conquering the industry with the release of her new record label, which she announced on her talk show on Wednesday.

On The Kelly Clarkson Show, she sat down with actress Keke Palmer, who started her own record label, Big Bosses Entertainment, in 2017. 

“I’m so much older than you…and it’s my first time in my career, and I just now started my own label, and I’m putting out my own stuff,” the 42-year-old revealed to Keke. 

“And I’ve had some good teams to work with, but there is nothing like being that 10-year-old again and being excited and nobody saying ‘Oh, you should do this’ and ‘You should do this.'”

Keke admitted that “people don’t know how hard it is” to run a label, to which Kelly quickly agreed. 

“Girl, I’m finding out. I’m putting together a music video, and I’m like, ‘Wait, I forgot to do what?'” she said. 

“I just now started it. I started writing, and I was like, ‘Wait, how do I put this out now?’ And then, I was like, ‘Well, I guess through me.'”

Kelly was initially signed to RCA after winning Idol and put out seven albums with the label before moving to Atlantic Records in 2016.  

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It seems the time finally came for Kelly to work for herself. “I feel like I’ve earned it, so I’m excited. I think I’ve earned the moment,” she said on the show. 

The mother of two previously revealed how she clashed with her label after joining them in 2002, begging them for a sliver of control.

“With ‘Miss Independent’, I had to cry in my label’s office to get it out [as a single],” she told The Guardian.

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“They wanted me to sing like the Aretha songs I’d done on the show, and I was, like: ‘I’m 20 years old, I can do big ballads, but I also love guitars.'” 

“They didn’t want to do a lot of production with me,” she continued. “It was the same thing that would happen with Adele – she does ballads with a piano. I said: ‘That’s beautiful, but can I do other stuff?'” 

Kelly has not announced the name of her label yet and is still listed on the roster of artists under Atlantic Records. 

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The bold career move comes mere months after dropping her new festive album When Christmas Comes Around…Again, which includes classic covers like ‘Santa Baby’ and ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’. 

Her 2013 Christmas single, ‘Underneath the Tree’, hit new heights over the holiday period with a total of 28.4 million streams, according to Billboard. It entered the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10 for the first time ever, marking her 12th top 10 hit.