Most singers fear a vocalist with chops like Kelly Clarkson doing a cover of their song. I mean, come on, the girl can sing, and I, for one, would not want to follow that up. But when Clarkson did a cover of one of Ella Langley's most popular ballads on The Kelly Clarkson Show on Tuesday, the country singer had a reaction that was nothing short of admiration and respect.
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Clarkson did a cover of
"weren't for the wind", which earned Langley her first No. 1 on country radio. Clarkson sang the song during the Kellyoke segment on her show, after showering the country singer with high praise. Turns out, Langley was equally impressed by Clarkson."She's really good," Clarkson said of the singer. "I like her music. She's very clever, really rad voice and tone. Y'all should check her out if you don't know about her already."
Ella Langley responded to a clip of the segment on Instagram, calling Clarkson's rendition of her ballad "Insane," next to a mind-blown emoji. Kelly may have "Kelly Clarksoned" Ella's tune, but it seems like none of us are mad about it, including Langley herself.
The Success of "You Look Like You Love Me" Surprised Everyone, Including Langley and Green
Ella closed out her 2025 with a sweep at the CMA's, where she took home three awards. All of them were for her duet with country music heartthrob, Riley Green.
In an interview with the Bobby Bones Show, Langley and Green discussed how the song was written and how ironic its success was, given that writing it almost didn't happen. "This song was never supposed to leave my audio recordings on my phone," Ella said of the smash hit.
"I wrote it as a joke with Aaron Reitier at first, and then the label heard it and loved it. And then Riley asked us to go on tour. Him and I, just kind of being from the same area and growing up on the same kind of music, I thought maybe we could try it out on the road."
Green echoed the sentiment, saying, "You know, I thought talking verses was probably a little too old-school, a little too traditional, but how cool is it that a song that's this country is doing this well?"
Together, this duo successfully brought back old country into our charts and our hearts, and we're so glad they did.
Photo By: Getty / Jill Truscello
