Kelly Clarkson Signs Record Deal With Atlantic Records For New Solo Album

Kelly Clarkson just landed a huge deal.

The multi-Grammy winning singer-songwriter just signed with Atlantic Records, announcing a new soulful record for 2017. The album will draw inspiration from soul and R&B as the foundation of her endearing lyrics and powerhouse vocals.

The singer fulfilled her “American Idol” contract with RCA last year with the release of “Piece By Piece”, and began teasing a major announcement this week by singing covers, including Otis Redding’s “These Arms of Mine”, Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is”, Aretha Franklin’s “Giving Him Something He Can Feel” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”, on Facebook Live.

“After winning ‘American Idol’ there was an arranged marriage that occurred that sometimes worked out and sometimes resulted in the hardest experiences of my life,” Clarkson said. “As an artist, ‘American Idol’ gave me something that was incredible, an audience and a platform before even releasing music. Although I am extremely thankful to the amazing people that I’ve had the chance to work with, I cannot describe the excitement of working with Julie Greenwald, Craig Kallman and their team at Atlantic Records.”

She continued, “The loyalty, innovation, and creativeness that Atlantic Records has been consistently bringing to the music industry is incredibly exciting for any artist to be a part of! We have already started creating a record that I have been wanting to make since I was a little girl, and a record that fans have been asking me to make for years. Here’s to the future!”

As a gift to her fans, Clarkson will be be releasing a live version video for her song “Tightrope” and has put four fan-requested cover songs on her website that are now available for instant download. The covers include her take on Coldplay’s “Fix You”, Radiohead’s “Creep”, Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind” and India Arie’s “Ready For Love”.

Clarkson seems happy to be moving on with a new record contract, revealing on Monday to Australia’s “Kylie and Jackie O” radio show her contention with producer Dr. Luke. Clarkson, who appeared to show support for Kesha during the singer’s lawsuit, told the show that Dr. Luke was “not a good person.” Speaking of his character, she said, “I’ve run into a couple of really bad situations, musically. It’s really hard for me because he’ll just lie to people, and it makes the artist look bad. He’s kind of difficult to work with and kind of demeaning. It’s kind of unfortunate.”