Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree



Another new Christmas song and this one is another joyous festive track, that spreads the Christmas spirit throughout everyone, so this had to be included on my Christmas Special 2016. Kelly Clarkson has always been one of those singers who would release a song I like, but then radio overplays it and I don't like it anymore, or even if they don't overplay it, I end up overplaying it and then not liking the song anymore. This only happens to her songs, and I don't get why this happens to me with her songs, all the time. This one is the exact same, but I can't help liking it because it's a jolly Christmas song. In this music video for "Underneath The Tree", watch Kelly Clarkson perform on her Christmas TV Special, while behind the scenes are cut throughout.

Kelly Clarkson hit fame when she won the first series of American Idol. Since then she has really set herself as one of the biggest female recording artists in the world. Recently, she hasn't been charting that well globally, although she manages to come back time and again with a hit first single from each album that she releases. This song is from her Christmas album and managed to hit number 30 in the UK. Since 2013, the song has received great radio play every Christmas, and the song is a favourite around Christmas time. The song was written by Kelly Clarkson and Greg Kurstin.

The music video was directed by Hamish Hamilton and Weiss Eubanks. It consists of Kelly Clarkson performing on her Christmas TV special titled "Kelly Clarkson's Cautionary Christmas Music Tale", which was shown on NBC.

She gives a stunning performance in a beautiful white and red dress, that is totally festive. She proves why she won American Idol all those years ago, she proves that her place in the world is on a stage, singing to people. Her voice is magnificent and this song manages to portray her vocal abilities.

As for the segments between her amazing performance, they're fun and cheeky, showing Kelly Clarkson's lightheartedness behind the scenes. She's clearly an easy person to get along with, and she has a brilliant attitude. Imagine being real life friends with Kelly Clarkson... That'd be the life, and you'll always have a good time when she's around.

Overall, it's great to see Kelly Clarkson on a stage performing. It's where she belongs. It's festive, it's fun, it's just a shame there isn't a narrative to incorporate the beautiful and meaningful song lyrics.
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New Release: Demi Lovato - Heart Attack

Demi Lovato is setting herself up to hitting the UK charts big style. Her highest charting single "Skyscraper" only managed to get to number 32, yet here comes her new single, raking up the chart, making this song her best charting position to date. But will her album be such a success as this single is. She has failed to reach the top 40 in the album chart, but let's hope her new album 'Demi' will be just as good. Last year she was a judge on The X Factor US, winding up Simon Cowell much to our amusement, and clearly to his as she is to also be a judge on the third series as well. I can't wait to see what the future brings for Demi Lovato.

"Heart Attack" was written by Demi Lovato, Mitch Allan, Jason Evigan, Sean Douglas, Nikki Williams and Aaron Phillips. The song has been compared to Kelly Clarkson, and it is definitely her kind of style. The song is about being scared of falling in love again after being rejected. Demi Lovato, as usual, manages to put her own spin on things and push the song emotionally. I don't think this is her best song over the last few years, I still think "Skyscraper" is her best, but I can see why this one is more of a commercial success.

The music video fails to excite me. I was expecting something narrative similar to "Give Your Heart A Break". Instead we get a performance piece that doesn't quite fit the emotional song. She has proven herself in "Skyscraper" with an emotional performance music video, but this seems to lack emotion.

The song announces she's scared of being in another relationship, afraid to fall in love again, as she thinks she might have a heart attack. But the video shows her as a strong independent person, could that mean she is happy being single?

I like the black and white scenes, it shows she doesn't know what to do, and what she thinks. However there's still not enough to this music video than there should be. Showing her backing band also gave us a more rockier Demi Lovato, could that show us what her album is like?

Overall a commercially great song, although not her best. And a music video that fails to convey her emotional side, and lacks very much. On the other hand, her backing band, and the song shows us that she would be good to see live, but I am not impressed with this video compared to her others.

Kelly Clarkson - Miss Independent

Kelly Clarkson was the first ever winner of American Idol, and this is her first ever international single (second in America & Canada after "Before Your Love / A Moment Like This"). Since then she has dominated charts worldwide and she has quite a few UK fans.

This song has some quite surprising writing credits, they are Rhett Lawrence, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera and Matt Morris. This song was originally written for Christina Aguilera, which is understandable as this song would have suited her. But they never finished writing it and so gave it over to Kelly Clarkson, who added to the lyrics and put her own unique spin onto the song. The song is about letting down your emotional barriers to fall in love, but does the music video really reference that?

When I first saw this music video I was young, I got excited when I started watching World Idol and I backed Kelly Clarkson all the way. Now I look back and realise this music video isn't as good as I initially thought it was, but I think it is clever the way it's been created and I kind of wish I was there. It's the sort of party that you wish you had but you don't want the clean up afterwards.

I like the fact that people jump in the pool fully clothed, although I'm surprised Kelly Clarkson resisted the urge to jump in, or rather she did and it was edited out? I like the fact that some bits are during the morning after and at other times there's footage from the night before. I also find the karaoke clever and interesting, and quite similar to various other music videos that are about.

Overall there really isn't much to comment on, but at the end of the day, it's edited good and it's really interesting, I cannot believe this song only got to number 6 here in the UK. I also like the fact that it links in with the song slightly and I like seeing how much she has changed over the years, not a dramatic difference as you can tell who she is, but she's definitely grown up a lot.

New Release: Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)

Kelly Clarkson has been going since she won the first ever American Idol, now she is at the peak of her fame and she is staying up there, ready to tackle high chart-toppers and beat them all to number one, and this is definitely the song that could do it. This is her second single from her most recent album "Stronger" , and due to album downloads only, it has already reached number 8 here in the UK, and this week it's set to chart higher, I guarantee it.

The song was written by Jörgen Elofsson, Ali Tamposi, David Gamson and Greg Kurstin. Most of these have written for Britney Spears, Ke$ha and many other well-known singers, but what I'm surprised about is that none of Kelly Clarkson's most recent singles were written by her, and although she has a fantastic voice and connects with the song perfectly, you can hear something missing, and I think it's because none of her own material is released yet, there are tracks on the album that has been written by her, it's just getting them released as a single.

This music video is one of those videos you really aren't supposed to like, but actually you fall in love with it because of the song. There is not a lot to say about this music video, except it is very well edited as this could have easily become the worst music video out, however it was saved, so well done to the people who edited it.

The choreography plays a major part in this music video. Kelly asked fans on her website to apply to be in her music video, they had to download the dance moves and then record themselves dancing in a memorable part of where they lived. This is quite clever since there are a bunch of people doing these choreographed steps... However they aren't the best dance moves out and it's aimed for younger people so that they can copy the dance moves, but it kind of looks a mess and doesn't quite fit all that well. The only bit I enjoyed about the choreography is at the end where there is loads of people doing the moves and Kelly Clarkson is also doing them too, and they're all in sync and it just looks neater and better.

I like the various videos from the fans, and it looks like Mermaids have heard about Kelly Clarkson as there are people doing the dance moves in the water, I like how you also hear Kelly Clarkson laughing at a little boy, did the editors miss that bit or did they leave it in on purpose?

There really isn't much else I can say about this music video... I can see the song getting to number one this week if it receives enough radio and music channel play, and I know it definitely is, but there are some big songs at the top and I think Kelly Clarkson might have a battle on her hands. As for the music video, I like it but then I also don't, and I think they kind of cancel each other out. As various people have said, you'd have expected a different music video if you heard the song by itself, instead it's unexpected and totally a surprise, but would it have been better to have a narrative, rather than a totally performance only music video? Maybe we'll find her next music video to be exciting and magical, or maybe not...
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Carrie Underwood - Ever Ever After

I have to admit, I wasn't aware of who Carrie Underwood was until a few years ago, thanks to Reggie Yates on Radio 1's Official Chart Show. He asked a question along the lines of "Who has sold the most records world wide after being a winner on American Idol?" I had expected Kelly Clarkson to come on top with Jordin Sparks following, but instead Kelly came second with Carrie Underwood first, which really surprised me since Carrie Underwood, as of yet, has never charted on the UK chart. Carrie Underwood won the fourth season of American Idol, and has had a number of hits in the US.

This song was sung by Carrie Underwood, and released on the Enchanted Soundtrack (it's one of my favourite films ever, and I so hope the rumours are true that there is a sequel in the works). For some reason a music video was released, which I watched a few days ago on the music channels, but the song was not released as a single, therefore it obviously didn't chart anywhere, even though this song is sung beautifully and it's the only one I know from her.

I love this music video, it works perfectly, again it's another soundtrack music video, but this is different from the rest, they've used the animation scenes from the film at the start of the music video, also making Carrie Underwood into an animation, which was an extremely clever thing to do, and kind of reminds me of Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliot's hit "Car Wash". And they don't use any other scenes from the film, instead they use what they filmed, which is a really clever and unique idea.

I think Carrie Underwood is really pretty in both the live bit and the animation, I like the use of the waterfall, and in theory they HAD to use it. I like how similar it is to the film, and that they used all the same effects. I like the fact that Carrie spreads happiness throughout the street, that newspaper stand man was awe-struck by her. That florist liked her lots too, and I thought it was really sweet that she gives the flower to another person, and links them two together, and I love the dancing with the children bit. And especially the end how the people just stop and move away creating two lines. It's definitely a music video that stands out from the crowd.

Carrie Underwood has this strong and powerful voice that makes you realise she is worthy of winning American Idol, although she deserves to become a worldwide star, I reckon the UK will really like her, and her sort of music is definitely making the chart now, so maybe it's the time for her.

Overall I love this song, and it'll be stuck in my head all day. The music video is very different, and definitely stands out from the many different music videos out there. It's a shame she never released it as a single as I could see it charting quite high. I hope one day she manages success over here in the UK, and I look forward to writing more reviews of her music videos.

New Release: Kelly Clarkson - Mr. Know It All

She is about to perform on the X Factor this Sunday, and I really hope it will help her get this song to number one, it's one of those songs that are very powerful and should get to the top spot. Kelly Clarkson won the first ever series of American Idol. Ten years on and she's still making amazing music, and although she is still classed as an American Idol winner, she would very much like to push that label aside. She has already proven to be one of the best international winners, and will probably be a success for a very long time, so expect to see more from her. I'm kind of wondering if a greatest hits may be in the works? Or maybe it's something that will be available in a few years time, but I definitely think she's qualified for one, as she has had a number of great hits, and this song definitely will be another.

This song was written by Brian Seals, Ester Dean, Brett James and Dante Jones. And it's a break-up song. Kelly's vocal is amazing and she has totally pushed the boundaries on what you would expect from her, and I'm definitely interested in this song. The song is very different to her other releases, and that's always a good thing as it suggests that there is something differently intriguing about her, which is exactly what she wants. So that hopefully her album and singles will gain a lot more interest from others who aren't necessarily her fans, but I bet they will become one as soon as they hear this!

I really like the music video, first up, we have the wall with all the newspaper cuttings, I think this is a really good idea, as it suggests at how much Kelly finds this troubling, and most artists tend to sing about the paparazzi, when really it is also the journalists who are giving these celebrities a bad name. My only question is whether or not they are actual newspaper clippings or they are made up for the purposes of this video. I also like the shadow technique used with this wall of articles, it shows that she does have a backing band, but also that she and the director appreciates them, which is similar to Avril Lavigne, as her backing band appears every now and again.

I find it funny how there's this guy standing doing nothing, and Kelly is screaming the song lyrics at him, whether he is a dummy or not, I'm unsure, but I can imagine the take-outs of this, they must have been in giggles a lot of the time. I also like the fact that Kelly is watching over past videos, but if you watch closely you'll notice that during "I Do Not Hook Up" music video, she imagines how she would hook up with certain people, and she doesn't have the guts to do it. When she fall off the bar table, that is also a figment of her imagination, and doesn't actually happen, so why is she able to watch it? Or maybe this was some filming error?

Overall I really like this music video, and it's accompanying song, I think they link in perfectly, and although the video isn't one of the best, I'm glad it has a narrative storyline and it fits in perfectly with the song.  I am looking forward to seeing her perform this, but it's already been a big hit in Australia and the US, let's hope it's as big here. I also like the ending in the video, it suggests a whole new route she plans to take, which is what I'm really looking forward for.
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