Kelly Clarkson Fires Back At Taylor Swift's Label Head

Here's the thing - Taylor Swift is adorable, she plays the guitar and she's got a lovely voice on her albums, but when it comes to singing live and hitting the high notes, she probably wouldn't have made it past the first round of American Idol. What, it's true! And after her performance at the Grammys on Sunday, a lot of people were wondering how the country cutie who struggles to belt it out live walked away with no less than FOUR awards that night.

Swift’s label head, Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta defended Taylor as the “voice of a generation” and said, “This is not American Idol. This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note. This is about a true artist and writer and communicator. It’s not about that technically perfect performance.” Um, but isn't part of being a Grammy winning singer being able to carry a tune? For the record, her performance at the CMAs was just as questionable, so it's not like this was a one time thing.

Naturally, season one Idol winner Kelly Clarkson was seeing red when she heard Borchetta's remark, and she immediately posted an open letter on her I Am Kelly blog to vent. Kelly wrote:

Wow …..Dear Scott Borchetta,

I understand defending your artist obviously because I have done the same in the past for artists I like, including Taylor, so you might see why its upsetting to read you attacking American Idol for producing simply vocalists that hit ‘the high notes’. Thank you for that ‘Captain Obvious’ sense of humor because you know what, we not only hit the high notes, you forgot to mention we generally hit the ‘right’ notes as well. Every artist has a bad performance or two and that is understandable, but throwing blame will not make the situation at hand any better. I have been criticized left and right for having shaky performances before (and they were shaky) and what my manager or label executives say to me and the public is “I’ll kick butt next time” or “every performance isn’t going to be perfect” ……I bring this up because you should take a lesson from these people and instead of lashing out at other artists (that in your ‘humble’ opinion lack true artistry), you should simply take a breath and realize that sometimes things won’t go according to plan or work out and that’s okay.

Sincerely,

One of those contestants from American Idol who only made it because of her high notes ;)

Think Taylor will have something to say to this? Let the games begin!