Katy Perry Praises Kelly Clarkson for the Acoustic Rendition of Her Hit Track 'Wide Awake'

Wide Awake, a song by Katy Perry that became extremely popular, peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 list in 2013. Inspired by real life events, the song was written for Perry's 2012 concert video, Katy Perry: Part of Me, and played a major role in Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection. The Fireworks songstress' significant life transitions, including her divorce from Russell Brand, were portrayed in the song. Grammy-winner Kelly Clarkson who is known to sing beautiful covers on her The Kelly Clarkson Show  sang her version of the hit number which garnered immense love from the audience and Perry alike. “Ok dang I can never sing that again,” the Dark Horse songstress commented on a video of the performance posted by the official Instagram page of the show. 

As per EW, during her Kellyoke cover, the Stronger songstress slowed down the ballad and sang the song acoustically, accompanied by Jason Halbert, the musical director of the show. Fans too gushed in the comments section, "This is my favorite song of yours and I feel every second when I [listen] to your version," one fan wrote. "I love Kelly and the cover was amazing but I could never change your version," a second fan said. "Duet?" a third fan suggested. 

"It's kind of like the labyrinth of my life in the last two years," Perry told MTV then. "I just wanted to tell a story about myself kind of going through this journey, maybe sometimes trying to get out of the maze. There's good parts, there's bad parts, and the whole time there's the younger version of me leading me through.” Calling it a dose of her story she continued, "Well, this song, I have a lot of different emotions and feelings in all of my songs," the Roar songstress revealed. "This song in particular is a dose of reality. It's kind of like coming down from a high. You've been on cloud nine for so long, and it can't always be so sweet and sometimes you need to realize that, and you have to pick yourself up and move forward and face the facts of life and know that this is just a lesson you learn and you're stronger because of it." 

In 2023 the music video hit a milestone as it surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube. As per NBC, Clarkson's rendition of Perry's poignant ballad is an even more depressing version of the original. As per MTV, Perry explained the track also inspired a segment in her movie Katy Perry: Part of Me. "It wasn't always sugar on tour. Sometimes there were hard moments, and you see that in the movie. There's literally a moment where I have to drag myself onstage. I'm, like, bending over, very upset, trying not to make my false eyelashes come off," she said, adding, "I just kind of throw myself on this lift, which I got on every night for my show."