Kelly Clarkson is making history as the first woman to host the NFL Honors!
The “Stronger” singer will be the first woman to host this year’s NFL Honors on Feb. 9 at Symphony Hall in Phoenix, according to a press release announcing the event. The primetime event, which honors the NFL’s best players, performances, and plays from the 2022 football season, is presented by Invisalign.
Clarkson shared how she reacted to being approached about the hosting gig during a Jan. 25 interview with Access Hollywood’s Access Daily.
“I had mixed feelings. … I was like, ‘Now, wait, I’m not involved in sports ball whatsoever,’” she told Mario Lopez and Kit Hoover. “‘Shouldn’t you ask someone who’s involved in the sports community?’”
Despite feeling under qualified to host the big honors, Clarkson joins a star-studded list of previous celebrity hosts, including Alec Baldwin, Steve Harvey, and Seth Meyers.
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Her upcoming hosting gig is also not the only thing she’s excited about.
While chatting with Lopez and Hoover, the 40-year-old singer, daytime talk show host, and The Voice coach shared she’s also getting ready to release a new album.
“This is my most personal record. And it’s not all bad – like, there is heartbreak in it, and there is sadness in it, definitely, but there’s also the whole arc of a relationship,” she said. “I had to get through it to even talk about it, so I don’t break down in an interview and cry about it – so I’m there now,” she added.
Clarkson previously teased the album, which represents her tenth studio release, during an interview with Variety.
“This is an important album. I’m working on this in therapy: I have a hard time vocalizing what I’m feeling sometimes, so music is helpful for me. It’s just been really healing,” she told the outlet.
When my ex and I first separated, there were many emotions. It was hard. I hadn’t really been working hardcore on an album until I needed to. I was just very busy. There were so many jobs, and I’m a single mom — well, even with being married, it’s a lot, trying to fit kids’ schedules in and all that stuff. But then the whole divorce thing happened, and I needed to write it.”
“My producer and I were laughing yesterday because I was like, ‘Remember that time we wrote, like, 25 songs in a week?’ A lot of those are the ones that are on the album. I literally wrote most of these almost two years ago.”
“Then I told my label, ‘I can’t talk about this until I’ve gone through it,’ and it’s just taken some time to do that,” Clarkson explained. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve done a lot of Christmas stuff the past two years — because I was like, ‘Well, that’s happy!’”
Though Clarkson has yet to share a name or release date for her latest project, which serves as a follow-up to 2017’s Meaning Of Life, she’s already planning to tour once her new album drops.
“I definitely am going to do shows. We’re figuring that out. I sing almost every day because of [my talk] show, even though it’s always other people’s music. So I feel like I’m checking that box. But when you write an album that’s so personal, it’s just therapeutic to be able to get up there,” she said.
In the meantime, fans can watch Clarkson host the 2023 NFL Honors at 9pm ET / 8pm CT on NBC, NFL Network, or Peacock on Feb. 9.
