Not every song has to be an old school classic for Kelly Clarkson to give it a spin on Kellyoke. Case in point: on Tuesday’s (April 27) show, Kelly and her band slid into the bouncing reggae-lite vibe of Adele’s 2016 song “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” from the English songbird’s third album, 25.
Wearing a sparkling white dress, Kelly easily rode the arrangement’s slinky rhythms, swaying along as she sang, “Send my love to your new lover/ Treat her better/ We’ve gotta let go of all of our ghosts/ We both know we ain’t kids no more.”
By the end, Kelly was bouncing in place and gripping the microphone as she slathered the track with her patented charm.
“Send My Love” was co-written by Adele, Max Martin and Shellback and hit No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in September 2016. The song landed at No. 26 on Billboard’s list of to 100 best pop songs of 2016, with the writer saying, “very few people [who] can record a pregame sing-a-long about bittersweet forgiveness, but ‘Send My Love (To Your New Lover)’ is just one of many such conflicted turn-ups for the 28-year-old, 10-time Grammy winner. With a jauntiness that feels all too raw, Adele nails the balance between passive aggression towards an undeserving ex (“Send my love to your new lover/ Treat her better”) and unapologetic truth-telling (“I’m giving you up/ I’m forgiving it all/ You set me free”) yet again.”
Check out Clarkson’s performance below.
