Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is an American pop and rock singer-songwriter, and occasional actress. Clarkson made her debut under RCA Records after she won the highly-publicized first season of the television series American Idol in 2002.
She was originally marketed as a pop musician with her debut album Thankful (2003), which yielded her first and only U.S. number-one single. As a result of her contract with American Idol, Clarkson made a foray into film with the release of From Justin to Kelly (2003) with runner-up Justin Guarini; the film proved unsuccessful with critics and fans.
Distancing herself from her American Idol image, Clarkson took more creative control, and through considerable experimentation, developed a rock-oriented image for the release of her second album Breakaway (2004), which yielded four U.S. top-ten singles and won two Grammy Awards. While on tour in Europe in 2006, Clarkson began writing and composing songs for her third album which she will release within the next year.
Clarkson's second studio album Breakaway was released by RCA Records on November 30, 2004.[12] Unlike her previous effort, it debuted within the U.S. top five and Canadian top ten, and sales were initially low in comparison to Thankful.[13]
However, the single releases from Breakaway proved very successful, and allowed it to become certified five-times platinum in the U.S. on January 18, 2006[14] and quadruple platinum in Canada on September 29, 2005.[15] In Australia, the album reached number two; however, it experienced a delayed release in the UK. Clarkson co-wrote six of the songs with several songwriters, such as former Evanescence band members Ben Moody and David Hodges, producer Max Martin, and Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne. Breakaway received different responses from critics; Rolling Stone commented that "on Kelly Clarkson's second album, [...] she embraces her rock side rather than the pop pageantry that put her on top of the American Idol heap". |
