Kelly Clarkson put her own spin on Katy Perry’s Wide Awake during her latest installment of Kellyoke, and it was heartbreakingly mesmerizing.
The talk show host took the stage with only her voice and pianist to sing a stripped-down version of the pop hit. She also added the painfully mournful emotions of a woman who realizes the romance and deep love she shared with another was no longer serving her.
Kelly Clarkson slowed the beat down and sang the words, “Yeah, I was in the dark/I was falling hard/With an open heart/How did I read the stars so wrong?”
The Grammy winner lingered on lyrics “Falling from cloud nine/Crashing from the high” while the pianist played a sweeping melody, and belted a shortened rendition through the end.
Katy Perry Penned “Wide Awake” After Her Divorce With Russell Brand
While Katy Perry put a poppy tempo to her 2012 hit, she admitted that the lyrics represent painful emotions from her life that fit with Kelly Clarkson’s ballad-style performance.
“It’s kind of like coming down from a high,” she told MTV News, via Capital FM. “You’ve been on cloud nine for so long. And it can’t always be so sweet, and sometimes you need to realize that, and you have to pick yourself up and move forward and face the facts of life, and know that this is just a lesson you learn and you’re stronger because of it.”
Katy admitted that she at least partially wrote the lyrics about her divorce with Russell Brand. The two married in 2010, and they split 14 months later. Katy said that the reasons she thought he loved her ended up being the reasons he stopped loving her.
Wide Awake was part of Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection. The single reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed on the chart for 26 weeks.
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