Kelly Clarkson took flight with her soaring performance of Martina McBride’s “A Broken Wing” for Tuesday’s (April 6) Kellyoke.
And without a broken wing, she sang with all her might and carried her performance with impressive riffing on the last line of the chorus, “Man, you ought to see her fly.”
“A Broken Wing” was the second single from McBride’s fourth album, Evolution, from 1997. It was her second song to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, and scored song of the year and single of the year nominations at the 1998 CMAs and 1999 ACM Awards.
But Clarkson isn’t the only American Idol winner who’s soared with this ’90s country classic.
Season six champ Jordin Sparks trained with McBride for her “A Broken Wing” performance while she was in the top seven of the competition. Judge Simon Cowell commented that her performance of the song was the first time he believed she could win Idol.
Sparks’ cover eventually made its way onto her 2007 eponymous EP, which was a compilation of the most downloaded songs that she performed on Idol. Sparks carried her version of “A Broken Wing” all the way to No. 66 on the Billboard Hot 100, and she eventually fulfilled her dreams to become the youngest winner of Idol at age 17.
Watch Clarkson’s Kellyoke cover of “A Broken Wing” below.
