MC’s MUSIC LOUNGE: Kelly Clarkson's vocals are out of this world on new single, "Where Have You Been", released under her own label

“Miss Independent, Miss Self Sufficient” – those were the words that opened Kelly Clarkson’s first official non-American Idol top 10 single “Miss Independent” in the spring of 2003, so it really is a full-circle moment that 22 years later, she actually is independent, not just in her personal life but in her musical life as well. After spending two decades signed to a major label, our very first idol is now an independent artist and has released her first single under her new own label High Road Records titled “Where Have You Been”. She first announced the venture casually during a recent episode of her talk show, and now we are getting to see the fruits of her labour. It’s no secret that Kelly has had her fair share of issues with record executives in the past (Clive Davis, anyone?), so if anyone has earned the right to set their own musical destiny, it’s her.

Kelly’s decision to go independent is a big deal because someone with her massive fan base and legacy is choosing creative control over a traditional record label and marketing rollout. If you look at other artists who have gone this route, the personal investment in their art actually did pay off. Tinashe is a great example of this; she left RCA Records back in 2019, and now, as an independent artist, she just scored her biggest hit ever with “Nasty”. The song vent super viral with millions of content creators making videos about “matching their freak” (I may have joined in on this but thankfully I’ve deleted the evidence). The song helped her land back on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time since 2016. It’s proof that independence doesn’t mean obscurity. Bet on yourself, stay authentic and the world just might get it. The fact is that Kelly hasn’t had a major hit on the Billboard charts since the mid-2010s (if we’re not counting “Underneath The Tree”), so now is as good of a time as ever for her to take this bet on herself.

Aside from Tinashe and Kelly, artists like JoJo, Frank Ocean and Chance The Rapper are just some of the incredible musicians who have gone the independent route with their music releases. Frank’s 2016 move in particular was deliciously savage, after he made a whole album titled Endless under his contract with Island Def Jam which was to serve as the last album he owed them, only to release the true sophomore album Blonde independently a week later. Even icons like Anita Baker and Taylor Swift have had their own fair share of issues regarding ownership in their music, and they may not be independent (at least not yet) but having ownership over your own work is just as important in today’s day and age. In Kelly’s case, she’s not doing this because she needs to, she’s doing it because she can. She made enough of a name for herself over the years to bring her to this time. Her choice backs up what all these other indie artists have been proving for years: the traditional system is not the only way. Go Kelly.

Next week, new music from Miley Cyrus is expected as she continues to tease her new visual album Something Beautiful, along with the newest album by Kali Uchis and a new duet with Amy Lee and Halsey. This week, we got the OG idol, a new soundtrack theme by Don Toliver and Doja Cat, new tracks from R&B princesses Summer Walker and Mariah the Scientist and a re-imagined country classic courtesy of Rascal Flatts and the Backstreet Boys. Plus, a viral pick that’s sooooo brat.

Listen on…

MC’s PICKS OF THE WEEK

“Where Have You Been” by Kelly Clarkson

It was during her interview with Keke Palmer on The Kelly Clarkson Show where Kelly casually mentioned that she was going to be releasing music independently. Now, we are getting the first taste of her new music and it’s classic Adult Contemporary Kelly. To nobody’s surprise, her vocals are out of this world. You all may have heard about “The Kelly Clarkson Effect” where she sings almost every single song better than the original artist, something that we’ve been privileged to see with her “Kelly-oke” series. The question is, can the “effect” apply to her own music? Possibly, because listening to this new song, I am convinced that hardly any vocalist can sing it like her. A pretty love song sounds perfect with Kelly’s voice, which is ironic given the state of her personal life at the moment (something I can relate to lol). The lyrics were inspired by a conversation that Meryl Streep and Martin Short’s Only Murders In The Building characters had in an episode of the series. Kelly performed the song earlier this week on the TODAY show in a rainy outdoor concert, which honestly is some good rock star sh-t.

Kelly will always have such a special place in my heart. We all watched her win Idol 23 years ago, and she truly established herself as an artist and extremely valuable figure in pop culture over the years. She’s finally getting to be creative in her own way without the pushback of record executives, and it sounds oh so good.

“Lose My Mind” by Don Toliver, Doja Cat

Doja Cat has been in her pop features bag all year long and the third installment for her in that bag accompanies the upcoming film F1. Doja is no stranger to a soundtrack banger, it was only two years ago that she took over Top 40 radio with “Vegas”. Now, she teams up with Don Toliver for this upbeat, synth-pop haven that is reminiscent of something you’d hear from The Weeknd (at least instrumentally). It’s giving blockbuster single from a blockbuster movie like they did with pretty much every movie back in the 90s (“For You I Will” from Space Jam will forever be my fave). If we look back a few years, Doja was letting it be known that she no longer wanted to make pop music, saying that she had only been doing it as a “cash grab” and wanted to created more alternative and artsy projects. Clearly that was short-lived, because between this track and her features with LISA and Jack Harlow, it seems that pop Doja is back (and I’m so glad). Fans won’t have to wait long for Doja’s new solo music either as she teases her next single “Jealous Type” in the new ad for Marc Jacobs.

Back to her features bag though, Don and Doja also released the seductive music video for the new track, complete with a race car dream sequence and a nude Doja Cat hanging in a pool of car oil while swinging on top of an engine. Cars, naked women and futuristic outfits; this really is a race car movie lol.

“What Hurts The Most” by Rascal Flatts, Backstreet Boys

This week we get a double hit for the Adult Contemporary lover in me to flourish, because there’s nothing I love more than a group of grown men singing about love. Well, maybe there’s a few things, but it’s still pretty f-cking great. “What Hurts The Most” is a classic that we all know and love, and now the guys of Rascal Flatts are teaming up with the Backstreet Boys for a re-imagined version of the song. The track is beautiful as one would expect, and given that this is a song that I’ve loved pretty much my whole life, it’s just another way for me to enjoy it. I love hearing re-imagined versions of classics, it makes it feel new again. The duet is one of many duets that will be a part of the upcoming album Life Is A Highway: Refueled Duets which will see the band re-create their most famous songs as duets with other artists. Aside from Backstreet Boys, the album features duets with Jonas Brothers, Blake Shelton and our queen of the week, Miss Kelly Clarkson.

“Spend It” by Summer Walker

After months of essentially trolling her fans online who have been patiently waiting for her new album, Finally Over It (that she teased in October), Summer is finally ready to give another taste of what to expect from it with the new single “Spend It”. The song is a departure from the romantic quiet-storm of her last single, and is way blunter about wanting the finer things in life, and for her man to be the one to supply it. She makes it very clear in the chorus too as she sings “Before I just wanted love, now I just want you to spend it on me”. Summer’s love life has been famously filled with ups and downs over the years, so maybe she needs a break from the lovey-dovey sh-t. Sometimes a girl just needs a good Birkin lol. To hold fans over while she still perfects the album, she released two additional versions of the new track, appropriately titled the “Diamonds and Pearls” version and the “Rent Is Due” version. You all can decide which one you love the most, I’ll stick to the original.

“Burning Blue” by Mariah the Scientist

Believe it or not, there is another Mariah out in the zeitgeist and she’s pretty dope. Mariah the Scientist has been making a name for herself in R&B since 2019, and she’s on the verge of the biggest hit of her career with her latest single “Burning Blue”. The song is her first solo new release in two years after hopping onto a bunch of features last year. The sexy, soulful, bouncy, bedroom ready track is both romantic and sensual, putting you into a trance almost instantly. Her vocals float hypnotically over the beat, complete with a thumping bass line and beautiful strings. If there’s one thing to know about me it’s that I’m a sucker for strings, they just elevate every sound. I’m not the only one who seems to be feeling the song, as it has been sitting between the #1 and #2 spots on the US Apple Music streaming charts for days since its release, not only making it Mariah’s biggest hit so far, but also the highest charting song by a female artist on Apple Music this year.

MC’s VIRAL PICK

“party 4 u” by Charli xcx

2024 was the year of “brat” but also the year that Charli xcx finally got the mainstream success that she had more than earned over the 12+ years she’s been consistently making music. She picked up lots of new fans that hadn’t been aware of her music earlier, while those who gate-kept her music had to officially face the reality that they now had to share her with the general public (gasp!). Among the older non-“brat” tracks that have picked up steam is the electro-pop/hyper-pop anthem “party 4 u”. The song comes from Charli’s 2020 album How I’m Feeling and was written alongside her long-time collaborator A.G. Cook. It was never released as an official and was as good as forgotten by the time the album cycle ended. It got some life in 2023 when it was featured in the film Bottoms, but it wasn’t until all things “brat summer” happened that fans started to discover it. Fast forward to May 2025, the song has gone mega viral, even surpassing “Claws” in streams.

“Claws” for reference was the actual single from that album and Charli is currently on her brat arena tour, selling out arenas across the USA and Europe, and is using “party 4 u” as the one of the final songs on the set list. Once she performed it at Coachella, the rest is history and is in the top 50 viral tracks on TikTok. Some viral songs are attached to a trend, while some are simply just that good (and in the case of “party”, it’s the second verse that has everyone’s pearl clutched). This is one of them, and frankly there’s nothing I love more than when a song that didn’t get its due at the time of release has some shine. This week we talked a lot about independent artists, and Charli has definitely worked many years under that mentality, so while there are definitely some great benefits to the independent life, let’s let our girl have some real commercial success after all these years.