CityLife

Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson
Apollo
February 7, 2010

IT'S been eight years since Kelly Clarkson emerged victorious from the first ever run of American Idol – the quintessential all American girl-next-door made good - all toothy, tanned and not exactly exuding of a great deal of individuality.

If her Apollo performance is anything to go by, however, she has since matured from the identikit would-be starlet she once was to a considerably more complete and savvy an artist. 

The comely popstrel strides on stage with a languid confidence, clad in a fetching sequinned bolero, t-shirt and jeans, before running through a somewhat half-hearted performance of a number of her earlier hits.

"Welcome to the All I Ever Wanted tour... ta-da!" she unconvincingly tells us. Unfortunately, the show has thus far been lacking in any sort of 'ta-da!'.  

Passion

A turning point comes when she covers Alanis Morissette's I Would Be Good, interspersing it with a Kings of Leon interlude followed by a series of further covers ranging from The Black Keys to The White Stripes via Patsy Cline.

Whilst the indie aspirations of many of her contemporaries come across as contrived and perhaps a little strained, there is something about Kelly Clarkson that gives you the impression this is the sort of thing she'd be equally as likely to be found dancing wildly in her bedroom to as singing on stage.

This seems to jolt Kelly out of her former lethargy and the second half of the show fizzes with passion and energy. The ballads are pitch perfect with every note sung from the very centre of her being - she finds singing quite cathartic, it seems. The set peaks with a fist-clenchingly emotional rendition of Since You've Been Gone, her biggest hit to date.

She tells us she likes to introduce a little eclecticism to her live repetoire as 'the suits' won't allow her to on records.

"I'm only under contract for two more albums so I might be doing something a little different after that," she adds.

She might need to get on with those two albums, if not to just keep our interest, but to keep her own.