Hear Kelly Clarkson Fly High on Cover of Sia’s ‘Bird Set Free’
Kelly Clarkson is reimagining a Sia classic in her own rocky, vocal-driven style. On Tuesday, Clarkson performed “Bird Set Free” during the Kellyoke segment of The Kelly Clarkson Show.
Dressed in a black-and-white bodysuit, Clarkson opened the song backed by a soft piano before being joined by My Band Y’all on the powerful performance of the This Is Acting track.
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“But there’s a scream inside that we all try to hide/We hold on so tight, we cannot deny/Eats us alive, oh it eats us alive, oh,” she sang, her voice rising with every word.
This isn’t the first time Clarkson has covered a song by Sia. She performed her massive hit “Chandelier” from 1000 Forms of Fear four years ago and “Breathe Me” from Sia’s 2004 album Colour the Small One in 2021.
Sia actually wrote two of Clarkson’s songs: “Let Your Tears Fall” and “Invincible” from her 2015 album Piece by Piece. (“Invincible” even features Sia’s background vocals.)
“I love songwriters and singers, like Sia, that are so passionate and you can tell have lived the song,” Clarkson told Spin Magazine in 2015. “I love that, because there’s nothing worse than listening to a song sung by someone who obviously has never had a broken heart or has never been treated unfairly or been so in love that you can’t contain it.”
“There’s nothing worse than hearing a singer who doesn’t translate that. Sia’s the epitome of that. She’s so passionate and intense and writes these big songs, and I love big songs, so it kind of worked magically,” she added.
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