Kelly Clarkson’s Christmas Album Features First-Ever Duet with Chris Stapleton on “Glow”

Kelly Clarkson and Chris Stapleton have collaborated for their first duet on “Glow.” (Listen below)

A Christmas song, off Clarkson’s When Christmas Comes Around…, finds the two artists trading verses and singing together through the chorus, Nothing has changed, I still wish you could be / Wrapped up in my arms, spending Christmas with me / When it gets cold is when I notice the most / With all the lights on the trees, even Christmas can’t compete with your glow.

Produced by Jason Halbert, Joseph Trapanese, Jesse Shatkin, and Aben Eubanks, When Christmas Comes Around… is Clarkson’s second holiday album, and a follow-up to Wrapped in Red, released in 2013. The new Christmas album addresses all the many experiences around the holidays, even alluding to her divorce from Brandon Blackstock on “Christmas Isn’t Canceled (Just You).”

“When Christmas Comes Around… captures how different the holidays can be for all of us during our lives,” said Clarkson on Twitter, “and I hope everyone can find something on the record they relate to. Hopefully the happier songs, but if not, hey, you’re not alone.”

In a recent interview, Clarkson, who recently released the more upbeat “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me” with her fellow coach on The Voice, Ariana Grande, said that she didn’t expect Stapleton to say yes to her offer to collaborate on a holiday song. 

“I just feel like everybody asks him to sing, and I get really nervous asking because I’ve been turned down a lot with singing with people,” said Clarkson, who sent Stapleton a video talking about a possible duet and didn’t hear back from the singer. “I got really nervous, but I was so excited he said ‘yes,’ and he turned the music around so quickly and his voice is just magical.”

Clarkson added, “There are a few artists that really move me and make me want to be a better singer and make me want to do better and inspire me creatively, and he has been since before everyone knew him… I’m so excited, I mean, he’s had such an amazing career and also that his amazing voice is harmonizing with mine.”