Kelly Clarkson on Writing About Divorce

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Twenty years after her breakout on “American Idol,” Kelly Clarkson released an album called “Chemistry” that deals with the long arc of a relationship and her recent divorce. She sat down to talk with Hanif Abdurraqib, a music writer passionate about the craft of songwriting. “This literally was written in real time,” Clarkson reflects. “That was me being indecisive. Man, I have kids. Do I want to do this? Can I try again?” But writing about divorce as one of the best-known celebrities in America is very different from a young artist’s heartbreak anthem. “It’s easy to hide in metaphors when it’s not the biggest thing that’s ever happened,” she says. “Everyone’s going to know. Unfortunately my life is very public, especially in the rough times.” Plus, Robert Samuels, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer on politics and race, shares his secret indulgence: watching classic figure-skating routines on YouTube.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.2	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:13.5	Way back in 2002, the new show American Idol proved itself in its very first season, yielding a star who immediately
0:22.6	became a real American Idol, Kelly Clarkson.
0:26.1	Hello, Kelly.
0:27.0	Hello.
0:27.8	How old are you?
0:28.2	I'm a big fan of you, by the way.
0:29.8	I'm 20.
0:30.8	I just turned 20 this April.
0:32.5	Oh, happy birthday.
0:33.9	She won the first season at the tender age of 20, and she had hits for years before
0:39.2	launching her talk show on NBC in 2019. Clarkson is 41 now and just released an album that deals with the
0:46.7	long arc of a relationship and her recent divorce. She spoke the other day with our staff writer Hanif
0:53.1	Abdul-Rakib, who writes brilliantly on music,
0:56.8	and he's passionate about the craft of songwriting and singing.
1:00.6	Here's Hanif.
1:02.0	Late last year, I was talking to the poet Ross Gay, and he kept saying that if he were to start a band, he would be a singer.
1:12.3	And he couldn't explain why, and he just kept repeating this phrase, I just love singers.
1:17.4	I grew up loving singers.
1:19.7	And I realized that I, too, did not have language for this, but I knew for a fact that I also loved singers.
1:26.9	I grew up loving singers. I grew up loving
	...

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