The singer opened up about her final Kellyoke performance and what’s ahead after seven seasons of her daytime talk show

NEED TO KNOW

• Kelly Clarkson debuted a freshly cut bob during appearances on Today and The Late Show with Seth Meyers
• The new look comes weeks after The Kelly Clarkson Show ended its seven-season run on Aug. 31
• Clarkson opened up about her emotional final Kellyoke performance and what’s next, including The Voice and her 2027 Stagecoach debut

Kelly Clarkson has a new look to go with her next chapter.

The Grammy winner, 44, debuted a freshly cut bob on Monday, Sept. 21, showing off the new look during appearances on Today and The Late Show with Seth Meyers. The hairstyle comes less than a month after The Kelly Clarkson Show concluded its seven-season run on Aug. 31.

During her conversation with Meyers, Clarkson looked back on the show’s final Kellyoke performance and the surprisingly difficult song she chose to close out the beloved segment.

Clarkson selected “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters as her final song because the chart-topping hit “was the most requested,” she explained.

The singer said performing Kellyoke every day had been “my decision from the jump,” but that didn’t mean the final song came easily.

“That song is basically humans against AI,” she said. “I had never practiced that hard on a song. Usually I’m just a fan of music. We can even show up, and it’s like, ‘Oh, we have to change a song at the last minute?’ We can do it on the fly a lot.”

“But that one, it is very high and hard,” Clarkson added of the song, originally performed by EJAE, REI AMI and Audrey Nuna as the fictional band HUNTR/X.

Her son, Remington Alexander, 10, also noticed the challenge while Clarkson practiced the song at home.

“When I first started singing it, my son, who cannot help but be honest, just kept doing a walk-by in the house and being like, ‘That sounds real high,’ ” she said. Clarkson is also mom to daughter River Rose, 11.

Clarkson recalled responding, “‘It is, Remington! I’m working on placement!’ ” She said it took her “forever to place it to where I didn’t sound like a dying cat.”

“It’s a weird song to sing live and not feel like you’re just offending everyone,” she admitted. “I love that song, though.”

Fans praised Clarkson’s final Kellyoke performance, something she said meant a lot after putting so much work into it.

“I’m gonna be really honest with you here. I was so proud when people liked it,” she said. “I worked really hard.”

Looking back, Clarkson joked that the song had gotten the better of her.

“I was like, ‘That song’ — I don’t know if you can say this, but it made me its bitch a little bit,” she said.

With The Kelly Clarkson Show now behind her, Clarkson is continuing to make music and return to the television screen in a different role.

She released her new single “I’d Be Lyin’” in July and is back as a coach on The Voice for Season 30 alongside Riley Green, Queen Latifah and Adam Levine.

She is also looking ahead to her first Stagecoach performance in 2027 after being named to the festival lineup.

Naturally, Meyers wanted to know whether Clarkson had already started thinking about what she would wear for the country music festival. Her answer? Not exactly.

“Are you gonna dress different at Stagecoach?” Meyers asked.

“Probably man … no,” Clarkson replied.

“I’m kind of the person that can show up in sequins and bedazzled out, or I could show up in jeans and a T-shirt. I don’t know,” she explained. “I don’t know where I’m at that day, Seth. I don’t know what I feel.”

When Meyers asked whether she decides on her outfit the day of a performance, Clarkson said that’s essentially how she approaches it.

“Pretty much,” The Voice judge said. “We roll in with maybe five outfits, and they’re very different… I might be bloated, Seth!”

“I usually go off whatever. I’m a mood person… Yay, follow the rollercoaster!” she added.

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For Clarkson, the changes ahead extend beyond a haircut or a new lineup of performances. She has also spoken about the value of sharing what she has learned throughout her career, particularly because she didn’t have a mentor guiding her immediately after winning the first season of American Idol.

“I think it’s a really beautiful thing to be able to look someone in the face and go, ‘You can make something from this. You can make a living doing what you love, but it’s hard work,’” she previously told PEOPLE.

“It’s a full-circle thing for me that always keeps me coming back… I didn’t have anyone there right after I won,” she said.

And if Clarkson could give her younger self one piece of advice, she knows exactly what she would say: “Don’t be so fearful when you’re walking in that room.”

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