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Kelly Clarkson's Ultra-Angelic "What Was I Made For?" Cover Is a Career Highlight
Clarkson took the gorgeous ballad — originally sung by Billie Eilish for the Barbie movie — and made it her own.
On March 28, Kelly Clarkson performed a stunning arrangement of ''What Was I Made For?'' by Billie Eilish on her talk show. Hands down, the cover is a career highlight for Clarkson — which is saying something given the sheer number of singles, albums, and covers in her discography. Her version of ''What Was I Made For?'' has just as much vulnerability and heart as Eilish's, but it's infused with high-octane belting and gusto that will leave you stunned.
The introduction was soft and lovely, with Clarkson singing the first lyrics in a light, breathy tone. She then pulled off some angelic vocal flips before launching into a dramatic crescendo. Listen for yourself in the video above.
RELATED: You'll Need Tissues After Hearing Putri Ariani Sing Billie Eilish's Barbie Song
What to know about ''What Was I Made For?'' by Billie Eilish
Written and recorded for the Barbie movie soundtrack in 2023, the ballad reached the number-14 position on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The song was acclaimed by critics, with Variety listing it as the best song of 2023. ''Part of the magic of it is the completely spare nature of each softly sung lyric — talk about a song that doesn’t have a quarter-inch of fat anywhere on it — and yet, within that economy of words, there are separate worlds,'' the outlet wrote of the track.
''What Was I Made For?'' also won an Oscar for Best Original Song in 2024.
RELATED: Darci Lynne's Cover of Billie Eilish's Barbie Song Will Have You Reaching for Tissues
In a March 2024 interview with Variety, Eilish explained that the lyrics were inspired by her navigating fame at a young age.
“That’s, like, a challenge for us, to write these lyrics that are very specific but that totally make sense in everybody’s life,” she told the outlet. “And Greta [Gerwig, Barbie's director] had such a beautiful film with such amazing visuals that it was easy to think, ‘OK, what do we write? She floats in the first scene and then she falls in the next one.’ And that has so much to do with my life and the way that I viewed myself as I was growing up: I was this person who could do no wrong in so many people’s eyes, and I felt like everything I did was me floating, and I felt unstoppable and unbeatable, when everything was blowing up for me. And then, things change and you grow, and sometimes you just feel like you don’t know how to float anymore.”
''What Was I Made For?'' has also been covered by Ariana Grande, Troye Sivan, Darci Lynne, Putri Ariani, Halle Bailey, and more.
