Kelly Clarkson Tells Taylor Swift's Boss to Butt Out

By Sam Brand Posted Feb 4th 2010 11:55PM

'American Idol's' inaugural winner refuses to forget where she came from, and she's not afraid to blog about it. On Thursday, Kelly Clarkson took to her keyboard to punch out a fiery rebuttal against Scott Borchetta, head of Taylor Swift's label, who slammed 'Idol' earlier this week while defending his star pupil's sub-par performance at the Grammys. "We not only hit the high notes," Clarkson said of 'Idol's' alumni, "we generally hit the 'right' notes as well."

The posting, simply titled "Scott Borchetta," hit the web just hours after the Big Machine Records CEO attacked America's biggest reality competition.

"This is not 'American Idol,'" Borchetta told the AP of Taylor Swift's performance at Sunday night's Grammys. "This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note."

Borchetta hit the interview circuit in defense of Swift after getting fed up with "over the top" criticism of her performance at the Grammys.

Thousands who watched the awards show, and hundreds of PopEater readers echoed the sentiment supplied by commenter JosieGrosie:

"As much as I love Taylor Swift...she continues to be HORRIBLE live! No power in her voice, she misses all the high notes, ugh...its embarassing [sic] watching Taylor win ALL these awards, only to see her perform terribly! And really Stevie?! You lowered yourself to sing BACK UP for that tripe? You're so much better than that..."

Borchetta's insecurity clearly wasn't totally unjustified. The Album of the Year winner didn't bring her A-game to the stage on Sunday and Swift's handler should have owned up to it, or at least ignored it. "But throwing blame will not make the situation at hand any better," Clarkson writes.

"Instead of lashing out at other artists (that in your 'humble' opinion lack true artistry), you should simply take a deep breath and realize that sometimes things won't go according to plan or work out and that's ok."

Later in the day Clarkson used Twitter to clarify that she has no beef with Taylor Swift. "I buy her albums and cover her songs, obviously I'm a fan," she tweeted.

"Every artist has a bad performance or two and that is understandable," Clarkson writes on her blog. But Clarkson's camp takes a different strategy following a poor showing on stage. "What my manager or label executives say to me... is 'I'll kick butt next time.'"

Tags: american idol, AmericanIdol, big machine records, BigMachineRecords, grammys, kelly clarkson, KellyClarkson, scott borchetta, ScottBorchetta, stevie nicks, StevieNicks, taylor swift, TaylorSwift

Comments

(30)

Friday 05 February

By Lucy77

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Fans of Kelly Clarkson's know how much she likes Taylor Swift. She often talks about loving her songs, so we know she is not a hater. She's correct by telling Borchetta to just calm down. The Grammy's performance will be forgotten the minute Taylor writes another hit song.

By Julie

I love Kelly.Taylor is a terrible singer. That does not make her a bad person, just not the most talented snger. I agree 100% with Kelly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Cheri

I have to agree with you, I like Kelly too. Taylor is young and can't sing unless she has a microphone that synthesizes her voice.

By Wissdom

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As good as Taylors music is I wonder if she ever took vocal lessons. Yes, vocal lessons to help strengthen her live sound. Taylor is still young and her voice will get stronger but, she needs the lessons now!

By sam

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talk about the pot calling the kettle black. niether one can sing worth a crap. but thats just my opinion.

By scotty

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Kelly is the bomb.....the real deal in any arena
I am not an Idol fan but a huge Kelly fan
Saw her live in Illinois last summer and she smoked
Taylor Swift couldnt touch her on her best day.........period.

By RogR1667

Well, Taylor keeps the fans that she draws happy. Which are teens and kids. And that's okay. I think she is a better songwriter than a singer, but she's obviously doing something right. Kelly is a much better singer, but as she said, most singers have bad days. Some more than others. So in short, don't care for Taylor don't pay to see her or for her cd's. . Simple as that. She does seem like a very sweet person , though. So let's not be too harsh toward her.

By john

kelly is ok but taylor swift to me is one of the worst singers yet she cannot sing

By oldboy643

I though it was just me but Taylor did not sound like her self at the grammys maybe her agent has her doing alittle to much road work.But then as I watch the View on Monday Whoopi G had mention her sound was not that good with CBS!!! I am not sure what it was maybe it was that she had to lower her key to sing with that other singer!!!!I know TAYLOR is better then That..

By Bug

Taylor Swift sucked on the Grammy's when singing anything other than her hit. Just ask Stevie Nicks...she couldn't even carry a tune with Taylor. And phony...don't even take me there. Taylor lost a lot and her true lack of voice truly shown through.

HINT: Taylor, get a new manager...one that isn't tone deaf and one that is honest with you.

By Missy

I have to say Kelly does rule, on the hand I would pefer Taylor to Miley if I had to idealize. Shes a much better role model.

By MARK

Miley sings much better than Taylor, but her acting is so bad it brings her down many notches.

By carole

Taylor is all auto tuned on her records. That is why she can't sing live.
Remember SNL? And now this.
I like Kelly Clarkson. She can sing, I just don't like her style.
And American Idol has gone down hill since season 5. I would have to be paid to watch that awful show. I for one, don't like the high note screamers on AI. ie Adam Lambert and others.

By kelly

KELLY SUCKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Sherr

No, you suck.

By keesh

This may not be the popular thing to say, but as cute as Taylor is, perhaps Kanye isn't looking that crazy right about now. He was so right. He should have tweeted his opinion, like Kelly did. Maybe he wouldn't have been viewed as such as ass.
I think it's cool that she has the talent to have written her entire cd, but since her good girl looks have put her on, Taylor might make a better actress that a singer. If you can't sing live, you might as well autotune, or give it up. Kelly is right.

By amberh609

well Kelly just showed her real side. just because Taylor is has won more awards than Kelly doesn't mean she has to be jealous. apparently Taylor is pleasing the right people..

By Kath

Did you even read the article? Kelly wasn't slamming Taylor, she called out Taylor's idiot manager who chose to blame everyone and everything else for Taylor's crappy performance at the Grammys.

By legeagle2

To hear Mr. Borchetta declare Taylor Swift "the Voice of this Generation", should be a little upsetting to America's youth everywhere. Frankly, I do not think that the Voice of this Generation is as wimpy and off-key as represented by Taylor Swift.

By phyllis

lets be truthful.she sucked at the grammys

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