‘The Voice’: Kelly Clarkson Brought to Tears Over Emotional Performance of Her Own Song

Kelly Clarkson was moved to tears during Monday night’s episode of The Voice, becoming emotional when her team member Corey Ward delivered a performance of Clarkson’s own song “Already Gone.” During rehearsal, Season 20 Mega Mentor Snoop Dogg said that he got “chills” listening to Ward’s performance, and Clarkson brushed away tears.

“It’s interesting when you write something, and you don’t feel it ’til years later,” Clarkson explained while Snoop Dogg remarked, “When you can get the songwriter to lose emotional control, that’s when you doin’ your job.” Clarkson wrote “Already Gone” with Ryan Tedder for her fourth studio album, All I Ever Wanted, and it was released as the album’s fourth single in 2009. “When I wrote ‘Already Gone,’ I was going through something that I thought, ‘It’s OK. It doesn’t always have to work out,” the American Idol winner recalled. “Hearing him sing that to me, in my life now, it’s like, are you smacking me in the face with my own message?”

Ward selected the song to compete against his fellow Team Kelly member Ryleigh Modig in the Knockout Rounds, and Clarkson ultimately chose Ward to continue in the competition during Monday’s show. “I was like, ‘Maybe that’s how that was supposed to sound!’” she said of Ward’s rendition of “Already Gone.” After Ward was chosen as the winner, Modig was able to stay in the competition when all three of Clarkson’s fellow coaches, Blake Shelton, John Legend and Nick Jonas, hit their buttons to try and steal her, with Modig ultimately choosing to go to Legend’s team.

“I had to steal Ryleigh, she’s young but she’s got such maturity in her voice, and flavor,” Legend said. “She had to come to Team Legend.”

Fans of the Clarkson will soon have even more of her songs to sing, as the Texas native is currently working on her next album. Earlier this year, the mom of two told Entertainment Tonight that she had written dozens of songs for her new project since filing for divorce from Brandon Blackstock last year. “I have written like 60 songs, it is an insane amount of getting it out. I think that’s a blessing in itself,” she said. “Anytime you go through some life, it’s such an awesome thing to have that outlet, regardless of whether people hear it or not.”