Kelly gets all she ever wanted

MANILA, Philippines - Kelly Clarkson’s fourth album All I Ever Wanted debuts as No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 with 254,671 albums sold and No. 1 on the Digital Album Chart. This marks Kelly’s first No. 1 album since her debut in 2002 and all four of Kelly’s albums have debuted in the Top 3.

Kelly’s hit single My Life Would Suck Without You has sold over one million units in the US alone and dominated the Billboard Hot 100 chart coming in at No. 1 for two weeks in a row. Earlier this month the song catapulted from the No. 97 position to the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 chart, breaking the previous record. The single’s jump also marked the largest leap to No. 1 in the chart’s 50-year history. Kelly previously held the No. 2 spot on the Hot 100 in 2002 with A Moment Like This, which went from No. 52 to No. 1 and held that position for two weeks.

With All I Ever Wanted, Kelly demonstrates her eagerness to continue branching out and push her music in new unexpected directions. Though she has sold over 20 million records around the world; landed eight singles in the Top 10; and won Grammys, MTV Video Music Awards, American Music Awards, and even been nominated for a CMA Award, she maintains she’s far more interested in challenging herself than in repeating herself.

Kelly’s enthusiasm is instantly apparent, even infectious, as she races to talk about each of the new songs. “A lot of it has a soulful, ‘70s rock vibe,” she says, “and then some is more club/dance stuff — If I Can’t Have You is like the Killers-meets-the Eurythmics.” But she also shows her softer, more emotional side with If No One Will Listen and her own composition, Cry, which she says is “basically a country song with pop production, incredibly sad but still strong.”

Kelly points to the album’s first single, the unforgettably titled My Life Would Suck Without You (produced by Dr. Luke and Max Martin and written by the two with Claude Kelly), as an example of her need to personalize and connect with all of her materials. The album’s defiant track I Do Not Hook Up is courtesy of Katy Perry. She laughs as she describes I Want You and its surprising theme. “First, it’s not a boy-bashing song, so that’s already different for me,” she says. “Plus, I wrote it, so that makes it even weirder!”

All I Ever Wanted is now out in CDs under Sony Music.