Kelly Clarkson certainly knows how to kick off an event—even in the midst of a pandemic.
For the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, the 38-year-old singer (who hosted the event for the third year in a row) started the ceremony with a show-stopping rendition of Steve Winwood's "Higher Love"—and we mayyyy have watched it six or seven times already.
The artist, who dazzled in a glittery gold gown, teamed up with percussionist Sheila E., a cappella group Pentatonix and (virtually) a massive choir of female vocalists.
Just a day ahead of the star-studded affair, Clarkson teased that the opening number would "provide the escapism" and positivity that people could really use right now.
She said in an interview, "We're just honestly trying to give everybody something a little normal. People are used to watching the Billboard Music Awards every year so we're trying to keep that coming for everybody and provide the escapism that we all desperately need."
She continued, "It's going to be a little different than what people are expecting but we're definitely going to be catering to the times a bit and we have a powerful message. We're not trying to make everybody cry or be more depressed about 2020. We've done that enough. It's more of like uniting people and connecting people and you know, music has a very healing power to it and the power to connect people and that's really what we're focusing on for the opening." All we can say is, mission accomplished, Kelly.
Excuse us as we go replay Kelly's performance for the eighth time.
