‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’ Is ‘Looking for the Light’ in Season 7, Kicks Off With Powerful Kellyoke Cover of The Weeknd

It’s not antithetic to get chills from Kelly Clarkson‘s almighty and emotive vocals, but the prima takes things to the adjacent level successful the play 7 premiere of The Kelly Clarkson Show, which kicked disconnected Monday (Sept. 29).

In fact, spell up and get immoderate tissues. In her archetypal occurrence back, Clarkson featured arsenic her guests not lone celebs Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, but besides Kerville Independent School District Superintendent Brent Ringo and 12 of its autobus drivers who helped rescue hundreds of children stranded astatine campy during the deadly July 4 floods successful Texas.

“We conscionable wanted to reaffirm our archetypal ngo statement, which was ever astir assemblage connection, humor, heart,” showrunner Alex Duda tells Billboard of the play premiere and affectional tales the heroic autobus drivers shared of getting the kids to safety. “From the beginning, [Clarkson’s] been a connector. … Today, we wanted to conscionable reaffirm that passim the years, Kelly’s ever said 1 of the things she loves champion astir the amusement — she loves the celebrities, and she evidently loves the euphony — but she besides conscionable loves the non-celebrities who travel up, and we tin radiance a airy connected them, radical who are conscionable trying to marque their assemblage a small spot better. They don’t ever get the shine.”

While it was a acheronian play for the Lone Star State successful the aftermath of the deadly floods — which killed astatine slightest 135 people, much than 35 of those being children, according to CNN — the show’s euphony manager says the speech amusement is besides looking to find the agleam spots successful beingness contempt the horrors. “Every play has a taxable … and this one, the taxable is looking for the light,” Jason Halbert tells Billboard, and that’s wherever the squad went with the archetypal Kellyoke of the play — “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, a opus that topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 4 weeks. “It tied successful bully with the full communicative with the Kerville autobus drivers. The show’s truly bully astir highlighting truly great, affirmative stories that are happening successful the midst of each the chaos successful the satellite today.”

Halbert says that with Clarkson’s Las Vegas residency — which was paused successful August owed to her ex-husband Brandon Blackstock’s death aft a battle with cancer — the prima and her set Y’all didn’t person each that overmuch clip to enactment the “Blinding Lights” Kellyoke together. For immoderate artists, it might’ve been an issue, but not...