Kelly Clarkson Reveals She Didn’t Want to Win ‘American Idol’

Kelly Clarkson won Season 1 of American Idol in 2002, kicking off one of the most successful careers in Idol history. But surprisingly, the singer reveals that she actually hoped the runner-up, Justin Guarini, would be named the champion instead.

“I do remember Justin [Guarini] and I having a conversation before and I was like, ‘I don’t want to win, I don’t want to win,’ because we found out we had to do a movie,” says Clarkson (quote via Taste of Country). “We just found that out Top 2, and he really wanted to do a movie and I really didn’t want to do it. I was like, ‘It’d be really super cool if I got second and you got first because the winner has to do the movie and the second one doesn’t.’ I won, so I had to do the movie.”

Clarkson and Guarini both went on to star in From Justin to Kelly, a box-office flop that proved Clarkson’s intuition about the film was correct. But while her career as an actress was short-lived, a fact that is fine by Clarkson since she admits she never wanted to do anything but music, she is enjoying her new role, serving as a coach on Season 14 of The Voice.

“It’s a really cool thing, 15-16 years later, to do something possibly for someone that was done for me,” Clarkson says. “It’s a great door and it’s a really cool avenue to get into the business … No aesthetics, no favoritism, it’s just your talent to turn that chair.”

Clarkson also recently turned Today host Hoda Kotb children’s book, I’ve Loved You Since Forever, into a a song.

“I made it more like a lullaby, like James Taylor, like there’s kind of some Patty Griffin in it,” Clarkson shares. “I hope we do it justice.”

Download the song on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Facebook/Kelly Clarkson