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Congratulations are in order for Kelly Clarkson!
The pop superstar and talk show host, 43, joined the Spotify Billions Club this week as her hit song “Since U Been Gone” became her first to reach 1 billion streams on the platform.
The pop-rock song was released as the second single from Clarkson’s 2004 album Breakaway and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for over a million units sold — though its certification hasn’t been updated since 2006.
“Since U Been Gone” won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and its music video won two MTV Video Music Awards in 2005 for Best Female Video and Best Pop Video.
The hit song was written and produced by Max Martin and Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald. In a 2023 interview with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, Clarkson shared her perspective on the difficult process of making the song in response to Clive Davis alleging she hated the song in his 2013 memoir.
“Let’s give some backstory,” she said at the time. “I was lied to, and they told me, ‘There are these producers who want to work with you, and there’s this song.’ It had dummy lyrics. They didn’t have lyrics in. They said they wanted me to work with it. I was told to write to the song.”
Clarkson explained she was flown to Sweden to work with Martin and Gottwald, who “were not told I was writing to it and already had it written.”
“I looked like a fool,” she said. “The label had told me something completely different. That’s a red flag. Why lie to me like that? I don’t like the lying. Thats why I have a bad vibe with that song. It’s interesting facts that people like to leave out.”
However, Clarkson admitted the song is “fine as hell to sing.”
Denise Truscello/Getty
“I am such a great compartmentalizer and can put that aside and sing the hell out of it on tour,” she said. “I would never not do that.”
Clarkson may only have one song with 1 billion streams on Spotify, but a few others aren’t too far behind. “Underneath the Tree” holds over 863 million streams, while “Because of You” and “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” have surpassed 800 million streams each.
