Kelly Clarkson's return to American Idol

It was no surprise that Kelly Clarkson gave an emotional performance on American Idol last night. That ability to connect with an audience is what allowed her to win the first season of the groundbreaking show, now in its final season, in 2002. Her tears while singing her single, Piece by Piece, actually caused her to stop and apologize to the audience. That is Kelly Clarkson, and if there is one thing she knows how to do, it is how to not mess up on American Idol.

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When she was done she explained to host Ryan Seacrest that she was very emotional because she’s pregnant with her second child, and that her performance was “so nostalgic and I can’t believe it’s the last season”. That’s what made Kelly’s performance so emotional for all of us – it’s the end of an era after 14 years.

Remember when the country elected Clarkson as its first American Idol? Things were so different back then. We used to call in and vote on a phone, sometimes even a landline. You had to dial actual numbers to place your vote. What universe were we living in? The democracy of the show was novel too, a concept since copied by plenty of other reality shows that have come and gone.



What makes us all tear up when watching this video is the good kind of nostalgia. (Not the bad kind of nostalgia that leads to shows like Vinyl and Fuller House.) We’re thinking about 14 years ago, when Clarkson was just an unknown with an incredible voice. Now she’s a wife and mother with one child and another on the way – oh and a bajillion hit singles under her belt.

Part of that nostalgia isn’t just about a former number-one show ending, but about missing an era gone by. There will be nothing like American Idol again. It is no longer the ratings juggernaut that it once was. There will never be something that unites the whole country to sit around and watch it at the same time, at least not on the scale of Idol in its prime. Now events like Grease: Live get half as many viewers, and people react not by voting but by sending mean tweets.

So many of us grew up with Clarkson – watching her on TV, listening to her songs, secretly hoping that we could also be plucked out of obscurity and launched to instant fame. She grew up right there on that set. That’s what brings tears to our eyes – a longing for the past and a grasping to understand the future. And, like always, no one can deliver that better than Kelly Clarkson.



Link : http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/feb/26/kelly-clarkson-return-american-idol-final-season-show