Kelly Clarkson delved into her own Christmas songbook on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Tuesday (Dec. 14) with a performance of “Merry Christmas Baby.”
Dressed in a sparkling gray gown, the pop singer powered through the opening track of her new holiday album, When Christmas Comes Around…, which she co-wrote with Aben Eubanks.
“You’ll wake up all alone and/ Wonder why I’m not home/ And I’ll let my phone ring/ A dose of your kind of love and/ I’ll let my absence show you/ What I got you for Christmas/ Is losing me/ Merry Christmas, baby,” she belted on the chorus while flanked by a trio of back-up singers and her talk show’s house band, Y’all.
The track is just one of five original Christmas tracks penned by the American Idol champ on the new LP, including lead single “Christmas Isn’t Canceled (Just You),” “Merry Christmas (To the One I Used to Know),” Chris Stapleton collab “Glow” and Ariana Grande-assisted bop “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me.” The studio set also features holiday classics such as “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” “Santa Baby,” “Last Christmas” and “Jingle Bell Rock.”
To promote her second Christmas record, Clarkson even nabbed her own holiday special, Kelly Clarkson Presents: When Christmas Comes Around…, which premiered on NBC earlier this month.
Other “Kellyoke” numbers The Voice coach has nailed to open her eponymous show range from her 2021 cut “Christmas Come Early” and beloved 2003 single “The Trouble With Love Is” to covers of Amy Grant’s “Breath of Heaven,” The Chicks’ “There’s Your Trouble” and Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good.”
Check out Clarkson’s gorgeous live rendition of “Merry Christmas Baby” below.