Songoftheday 9/13/23 - What if I told you it was all meant to be? Would you believe me? Would you agree?
"A Moment Like This" - Kelly Clarkson
from the album Thankful (2003)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11
Today's song comes from Kelly Clarkson, who was born and grew up in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas. Kelly's dad left her mom when she was six, and despite that she grew up in a devoutly religious household. Clinging to music in her younger years, she pursued the art in high school, before setting out to try to start a singing career. She moved to L.A. and did some background acting work while trying to get signed to a label on her own terms, but that wasn't meant to be, and Kelly moved back to Texas and worked odd jobs. But something was happening on the other side of the world that would go on to change her life.
In the fall of 2001, Simon Fuller, who had extensive history in the music management field, set out to create a televised singing contest (no, not Eurovision) that would carry on week to week with contestants being voted through or out. Named Pop Idol, the series became a huge success, with the first-season winner Will Young releasing a "winner's single" called "Evergreen" that would go on to be the best-selling single in the United Kingdom for 2002. With a panel of "judges" to critique the performances headed by pop producer king Pete Waterman (or Stock Aitken Waterman fame) and Simon Cowell, who quickly became the gruff naysayer of the group, the show had an aura of musical legitimacy amongst the telethon circus hoops.
With this success, the Idol franchise was spread around the world, with America naturally as the prime golden ring to obtain. American Idol: The Search for A Superstar, made its debut as a summer "replacement" series - one that would air as network's normal programming would go on hiatus for the season - in 2002. Ten thousand people auditioned in seven different cities and were whittled down to a bit over a hundred. These singers would then be brought to Hollywood, where they would again be put through more auditions and cut until there were thirty left. The 30 were broken into three groups that were coached, groomed, and given singing advice before recording a pretaped song for the television audience to vote on. Three were chosen from each group, and a "wild card" round (chosen by the judges) made a tenth. Kelly was one of the ones voted through by the public for her take on "Respect".
Well, it really wasn't a surprise when Kelly won over frizzy-haired goof Justin Guarini to take the prize in the beginning of September of 2002. On the finale, both singers gave a performance of two songs that would become and "A" and "B" sides of the winner's single for whomever triumphed. While "Before You Love" was technically the A-side, it was the song people voted on, "A Moment Like This", that would grab the ear of radio programmers and become the inaugural Idol hit. Written by Swedish songwriter Jörgen Elofsson, who was part of Max Martin's Cheiron Studios team and worked on hits from Britney Spears and the Irish boyband Westlife, and John Reid, who was originally better known for his work with the British techno-rave act Nightcrawlers and their club classic "Push The Feeling On", the result sounded like nothing either of them had done before. A schlocky Hallmark-ready anthem to celebrate victory, the lyrics are basic inspirational fare that seeks neither to enrich or offend, but rather just float on the high that the finale was supposedly carrying. Mind you, Kelly carried that damn thing like a pro, and listening to her performance at the final two solidified any doubt of who was going to take it (there aren't enough girls in the world screaming for Guarini). The single was immediately released to the public, and after entering Billboard's Hot 100 at #52, raced all the way to the top of the chart, breaking a record at the time set by the Beatles. The freaking Beatles. And since Billboard's chart rules for singles gave the sales points to the song with the biggest radio airplay points, it was that "b-side", "A Moment Like This", that showed at the top of the list for two weeks....
"A Moment Like This" topped the Hot 100 for two weeks in October of 2002. On the radio, the song peaked at #4 on both the Mainstream Top-40 and Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") airplay charts, rose to #27 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, and even popped on to the Country Songs list at #58. Internationally, the single also topped the Canadian sales chart, and went to #20 on the radio list there. A "new mix" of the song would eventually appear on Kelly's debut album Thankful, which came out the following year.
Both Kelly and the Thankful album (as well as the Idol franchise) will be back to the series.
(5/10)
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Here's Kelly's performance of the song from the finale...
The "A-side" of the single, "Before Your Love", even got its own music video, but the song, written by heavy-hitters Desmond Child and Cathy Dennis (of early 90's pop fame) got ignored by radio...
After her win, Clarkson went on the Today Show...
In 2006, Leona Lewis, who won Simon Cowell's new British singing competition The X Factor, released "A Moment Like This", topping the British Singles chart for four weeks and was the second biggest hit of that year...
Up tomorrow: A young singer songwriter bids her adieu.
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