Kelly Clarkson brought the emotion to her eponymous talk show on Thursday (Jan. 20), kicking the new episode off with a moving cover of Sarah McLachlan‘s 1997 song, “Adia.”
“Adia, I’m empty since you left me / Trying to find a way to carry on / I search myself and everyone / To see where we went wrong,” Clarkson belted the heartbreaking lyrics, backed by her full band.
“Adia,” off McLachlan’s 1997 album Surfacing, first appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart dated May 30, 1998 — before shooting up to its No. 3 peak on the chart dated August 22, 1998. The song spent 27 total weeks on the Hot 100.
During her 1998 VH1 Storytellers performance, the Canadian singer-songwriter told the crowd that the song is about her problems “dealing with feeling responsible for everyone else.”
In 2018, however, McLachlan revealed the true meaning of the song, which doesn’t “paint her in the best light.” She later retold the story to a crowd in Las Vegas, explaining that she “crossed a line” by falling in love with “my best friend’s ex.” Her relationship with her best friend, Aida, was ruined after that. “It wasn’t a fling,” she assured the audience, revealing that the man was her former husband Ashwin Sood. “I did marry the guy and had kids with him, and subsequently divorced him.”
Luckily McLachlan and Aida reconnected, and Aida’s son is now the singer’s godson.
Clarkson’s wide array of choices for other recent “Kellyoke” moments include Aerosmith’s 1994 power ballad “Crazy,” The Pretenders’ 1995 single “Angel of the Morning,” “Working” by Tate McRae and Khalid, Alanis Morissette’s “Hands Clean” and her very own Piece By Piece-era album cut “Someone.”
Watch Clarkson’s rendition of “Adia” below.