By 2005, Kelly Clarkson was a household name, but not yet a pop superstar. She’d won the inaugural season of American Idol in 2002 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 with her victory song “A Moment Like This,” and she’d scored a couple additional top 10 hits, but it still wasn’t totally clear how or if she would ultimately separate himself from the Idol machine. But in 2005, she officially made her breakaway from Idol, and introduced herself as the leading pop-rock superstar of the mid-’10s — with huge hit singles, a signature VMAs performance, and even an unwitting cameo in the year’s biggest film comedy moment.
On this week’s episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we’re introducing the Vintage Pop Stardom series — focusing on one pop star during one of their most memorable years, and going deep into everything that made their year so special — with a look at 2005 Kelly Clarkson. Host Andrew Unterberger is joined by renowned YouTube pop commentator (and co-host of the Song vs. Song podcast) Todd in the Shadows to remember Clarkson’s mid-’00s peak, and how she was able to have such a huge impact on a hip-hop-dominated era as a pop star who out-rocked a lot of the rock stars.
We of course get into the songs, starting with the unquestioned all-timer “Since U Been Gone” — remembering the way the song connected the dots between a lot of what was going on in pop and rock at the time, and debating whether the guy in the song’s lyrics might’ve not actually been such a bad dude. We also hit on Kelly’s triumphant turn at the 2005 VMAs, and her unforgettable cameo (by name only) in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and what made her name the perfect fit for that specific gag. And then we really dive into the thick of her 2005, including her firing her guitarist live on stage while on tour, her free-associating childhood-fantasy lyrics while forgetting the words to “Breakaway” on SNL, and her bringing the house down with every live rendition of fan-favorite deep cut “Beautiful Disaster.”
Check it out above — along with a YouTube playlist of some of Kelly’s finest and most memorable 2005 moments — and and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
The post “What Made Kelly Clarkson’s 2005 One of the Most Unforgettable Pop Star Years of the 2000s?” by Andrew Unterberger was published on 01/23/2025 by www.billboard.com