Demi Lovato reveals she hugged Kelly Clarkson three times when they met

Demi Lovato says she hugged Kelly Clarkson three times when they first met, because she wanted her to know what she meant to her. 

The singer, 34, spoke about her first idol on Street You Grew Up On with Kerry Washington, in an episode released on 14 October.

Lovato said Clarkson’s American Idol win was a turning point. 

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“When Kelly Clarkson won American Idol and she sang A Moment Like This, that was a game-changer for me,” she said. “That was the first time I really had an idol.” 

As a young girl she watched the show with her family and thought, “I want to be her someday.” She also practised reaching higher notes by singing Clarkson’s hit Since U Been Gone.

When they finally met, she said, she couldn’t stop hugging her. 

“I hugged her three times because I was just like, you don’t know what you mean to me and how you’ve shaped my career. I am who I am as a singer because of you,” Lovato said of Clarkson, 44.

The admiration has long been mutual. 

Lovato told Jimmy Fallon in 2023 that her email address as a child was [email protected], and that it was a full-circle moment when Clarkson later covered her song Anyone.

On The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2021, Lovato said she wouldn’t be the artist or person she is, “outspoken and vulnerable and fearless”, without having Clarkson to look up to. 

Clarkson, in turn, praised her openness about mental health and said she lives with depression herself.

Lovato has said a collaboration is a “high possibility” and a “life goal”, but only if they find the right song. Nothing has been announced.

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