Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is a movement that is defining pop culture, with fans rabid to see the icon perform live for the first time in five years. But she’s not the only one with highly anticipated music this year, as Kelly Clarkson is set to release Chemistry, her first non-holiday album since 2017. With the reveal that her 10th studio album is coming June 23, she also announced a 10-date Las Vegas residency; however, Clarkson will not be hitting the road for a big tour à la Swift, and she has a good reason why.
Apparently when fans heard of the former Voice coach’s upcoming “Chemistry…an Intimate Night with Kelly Clarkson,” some thought that was just a precursor to a bigger secret tour to promote her new album, in the same way that Taylor Swift embarked on her Eras Tour following the release of Midnights a few months prior. The “Since U Been Gone” singer cleared that up in a video on Instagram, saying:
People are saying, ‘Are you going on tour?’ Here’s the thing. This is why I announced the 10 shows in Vegas. I was not being, like, ‘Oh, it’s a secret. We’ve really got this huge tour we’re gonna do right after.’ It’s not that situation. I don’t know if y’all know this, but I have, like, a 9-to-5er. Like, I have a job. It’s a lot of work and takes time. I also have kids, you know? They’re in school. So, I get really tied down to those things, obviously. We are trying to figure out what the possibilities are in certain parts of our calendar. We are trying to do that.
It makes total sense that Kelly Clarkson wouldn’t be able to uproot her life and go on tour at this moment. She does, after all, have primary custody of her two children since her divorce with Brandon Blackstock, and her Emmy-winning talk show is in the process of moving its production across the country to New York City. It’s pretty cool under those circumstances that she was able to carve out any time for Las Vegas at all.
However, just because a big Chemistry tour isn’t happening now doesn’t mean all hope is lost for people who can’t make it out to Sin City, as she said they are looking at the calendar to see when more tour dates might be possible. In the meantime, though, she wanted to be up-front with fans and emphasize just how special these 10 shows are going to be. She continued:
That’s why I was very adamant about being very honest when I first announced it. These are gonna be intimate and cool and like more rock ‘n’ roll vibe, not so, like, ‘Vegas-y,’ like everywhere. But it’s gonna be really cool.
With Kelly Clarkson opening her entire catalog for the residency, it feels a lot like Taylor Swift revisiting all of her music from the past 17 years for her current tour. The “Anti-Hero” artist has been thrilling fans on tour dates around the country with all of her surprise songs and fashion moments from every one of her eras.
While it’s completely relatable why Kelly Clarkson isn’t able to do something similar, fans can surely continue to hope to hear of more opportunities to see her on stage soon.
