For the past seven years, Kelly Clarkson has proven herself to be an absolutely delightful daytime talk show host. Back in February, Clarkson announced that she's stepping away from The Kelly Clarkson Show to focus on her family, and its final episode aired yesterday. That meant that we got the last ever installment of Kellyoke, the regular feature in which Clarkson belts the absolute shit out of somebody else's song. She went out on a literal high note.
Clarkson closed out Kellyoke with her version of "Golden," the big HUNTR/X hit from the 2025 Netflix smash Kpop Demon Hunters. According to the Kelly Clarkson Show social media accounts, "Golden" is their "most requested cover song EVER." It's a notoriously difficult song to sing, and Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami, the real people who recorded it in the first place, struggled to hit those notes when performing at the Oscars earlier this year. But Kelly Clarkson is Kelly Clarkson.
Watching Clarkson's performance, you could tell that she was working hard, but she pulled it off. The breath control alone looks like a herculean feat. Below, watch her instantly viral performance, as well as the original track.
Another thing that went viral: One profoundly misguided engagement-bait tweet about whether or not Clarkson has any hits of her own:
Kelly Clarkson is such an anomaly in the music industry. We often claim her as the best vocalist of our generation, yet she doesn’t have hits on her own. She’s just known as THE American Idol but has not establish an artistic identity. I wish she had bigger songs/career. https://t.co/0X3sdVfiIc
— perks (@perkindicular) August 31, 2026
