Kelly Clarkson has admitted she "had to cry" in a bid to get her new music released.
Kelly Clarkson
The singer struggled to forge the career she wanted despite her American Idol win in 2002, because her label wanted soul music from her rather than pop when she started out.
Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, she explained: "I wanted to do pop, because that means "popular", and anything that was soulful. But it was hard to get that across at first. With 'Miss Independent', I had to cry in my label's office to get it out [as a single]."
Despite her six successful solo albums she did find opposition towards her pop music choices difficult, though she soon managed to persuade her label to allow her to make music she wanted to make.
"They wanted me to sing like the Aretha songs I'd done on the show, and I was, like: 'I'm 20 years old, I can do big ballads, but I also love guitars.' They didn't want to do a lot of production with me. It was the same thing that would happen with Adele - she does ballads with a piano. I said: 'That's beautiful, but can I do other stuff?'"
However the star believes it was her drive and vision that's led to her having such a long and illustrious career.
"I don't know why I've lasted - you focus on the music, and sometimes the stars align and sometimes they don't. I think it helped that I knew what I wanted to do from the start."
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