Kelly Clarkson is flexing her balladeer muscles. On the Friday (Feb. 17) installment of The Kelly Clarkson Show‘s Kellyoke series, the three-time Grammy winner wowed her audience with a triumphant cover of Cher‘s 1998 track “Strong Enough.”
Clarkson brought out the self-love anthem’s emotional texture by performing the first few bars with nothing but piano accompanying her soulful voice. “Where did you sleep last night, and was she worth it?” she crooned, before a drumroll and electric guitar boomed into the mix.
“‘Cause I’m strong enough to live without you, strong enough/ And I quit crying long enough,” she continued, now leaning full-throttle into her robust, trademark belt. “Now I’m strong enough to know you gotta go/ Come hell or waters high you’ll never see me cry/ This is our last goodbye, it’s true.”
Released in 1998 as a single off of Cher’s album Believe, “Strong Enough” is certainly a fitting track for an artist whose biggest hit to date is called “Stronger” to cover. In fact, the two songs have strikingly similar messages as well, with Clarkson also singing on her 2011 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 about being strong enough to live without an ex, or as she puts it, with “just me, myself and I.”
The latest Kellyoke isn’t the first time Clarkson has paid tribute to Cher, though. In a previous season of her daytime talkshow, the Voice coach covered the dance pop legend’s “If I Could Turn Back Time.”
Watch Kelly Clarkson perform Cher’s “Strong Enough” on The Kelly Clarkson Show below:
https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/kelly-clarkson-strong-enough-cher-cover-1235256018/