When Kelly Clarkson said she was doing a tribute to the one and only Dolly Parton, I didn’t know she was gonna put my jaw through the floor.
Kelly took the stage to honor the host of the 57th ACM Awards last night, and good Lord, that girl can SING. She’s such a powerhouse, and her vocals were absolutely impeccable during her performance of “I Will Always Love You”.
Most people wouldn’t pick such a difficult song to sing on a live TV show in front of millions of people (assuming the ratings hold up to that, might just be thousands), but she did it, and she blew 90% of the rest of the performances out of the water… and she’s not even a country artist.
Of course, the iconic song was originally written (on the same day she wrote “Jolene”) and recorded in 1973 and released in 1974. It was recorded by the late, great Whitney Houston for the 1992 film, The Bodyguard, and her version went on to become one of the highest selling songs of all time.
Dolly had actually written the song as a farewell letter to Porter Wagoner when she decided to leave his show, because he was very upset and bitter about her departure in the mid- ’70s and didn’t want her to leave the program, because obviously, he knew she was a superstar.
Dolly was equally as impressed with Kelly’s performance as I was last night, saying that she knows Whitney would’ve loved it, too:
“I know that Whitney is smiling down on us tonight, so thank you very much… she would be proud of that.”
You really can’t ask for anything more than that, and I couldn’t agree more. I mean, really, when are we going to get a country album from Kelly? If this doesn’t prove it needs to happen, I don’t know what will.
Though, save for a few artists, the ACM’s were a giant snoozefest, but this is one of the performances you’re definitely gonna want to check out:
