Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson's talent originally emerged at High School when her starring performances in various musical shows inspired her to study music. She won the very first season of the American Idol TV show in 2002, finishing with an emotive performance of the big ballad A Moment Like This - written especially for the competition winner - which sold over 236,000 in its first week of release going to No 1 in the US and Canada. She followed it with an equally successful debut album, Thankful, a movie From Justin To Kelly, and became an international star, gradually moving from ballads to a rockier approach on second album, Breakaway, writing the title track with Avril Lavigne. Kelly went on to sell over 20 million albums around the world and topped the UK charts in 2009 with My Life Would Suck Without You. Simon Cowell said she was by far the best of the American Idol winners.