Kelly Clarkson has had a stellar year, with her smash-hit talk show celebrating its 1000th episode in March and the mother of two announcing her own record label.
Yet one department that the star is struggling in seems to be ticket sales, with her upcoming Las Vegas residency still having 70% of seats available just months away from the first show.
Ticket troubles
© Getty ImagesThe 18-show residency kicks off on July 4 and will run until November 15 at Caesar’s Palace, and Kelly appears to be struggling to sell tickets for the event she has dubbed the “Studio Sessions”.
This points to a wider trend amongst artists lately, with more than 3,800 seats up for grabs just hours before Beyoncé was set to go onstage for her first night of the Cowboy Carter Tour in April.
Ticket prices dropped significantly as they scrambled to sell seats, and many of her fans were angry at paying up to four figures in the first release.
What happens in Vegas
© GC ImagesKelly spoke to Today on Tuesday about her upcoming shows, sharing how she is looking forward to interacting with her fans.
“I’m excited! This one is different,” she said on the show. “I hired more musicians and more singers to cover everything to where there’s no band tracks.”
“It’s all organic, it’s all live,” she added. “I really wanted to make the experience as if you’re in the studio with us. So we’ve worked really hard on the sound.”
Girlboss mode
© Getty ImagesThe 43-year-old has had a busy year, and announced that she had created her own record label in a huge move for the singer. “It’s my first time in my career and I just now started my own label and I’m putting out my own stuff,” Kelly said on her show. “I’ve had some good teams, like, to work with, but there is nothing like being that 10-year-old again and being excited and nobody saying ‘Oh, you should do this’ and ‘You should do this.'”
She later clarified that the label could not take on any artists yet, as she would just be releasing her own music for the moment. “I just had to create something because I’m releasing my stuff and it was like you have to release it through some kind of vessel,” Kelly explained on the Not Gonna Lie podcast. “So I’m not taking artists, and I’m really lucky to be clearing the air right now.”
“Because it’s not that I don’t want to. I know a lot of amazing artists. My cup runneth over. I’m a single mom with two kids and like a lot going on.”
Milestone celebration
© Getty ImagesThe star also celebrated 1000 episodes of The Kelly Clarkson Show, returning after a prolonged absence to share how grateful she was for the community the fans had built.
“We’ve created a community and supported each other through a lot of ups and downs,” she said in an emotional speech. “A lot of ups and downs personally as well.”
“We have laughed together, cried together with some beautiful stories, sang together, danced together, celebrated and competed together. I’ve lost alone… a lot,” she added. “And along the way, we’ve found comfort with each other