Kelly has toured the world and performed in numerous Spanish-speaking countries. Fans may wonder, can this global celebrity speak Spanish?
Kelly Clarkson can speak some Spanish. She is not thought to be completely fluent, but she can sing in the language and continues to learn more.
Kelly Speaks “Un Poquito” Spanish
Kelly herself cleared up any doubts surrounding her fluency in Spanish. When an interviewer asked her if she can speak the language, she shyly responded that she knows “un poquito,” or a “very little” bit of Spanish. See her response at 0:47 in this video:
Kelly explained her prior knowledge of Spanish to fans on Twitter in 2020. She said that she grew up with “a bit of knowledge” of Spanish, since so many people in Texas spoke Spanish and English around her.
Kelly Tries to Learn Spanish
Although Kelly is not completely fluent in Spanish, she regularly makes an effort to learn the language. Kelly practices her Spanish with fellow musician Luis Fonsi, who is famous for his Spanish-English crossover music.
Kelly and Luis shared this video to promote La Voz, the Spanish version of The Voice. Luis was a judge on La Voz and taught Kelly to repeat his Spanish phrases, which prompted viewers to tune in for a new episode.
Luis also encourages Kelly to keep practicing and learning. In early 2020 he appeared as a guest on her talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and the pair discussed Kelly’s progress with learning Spanish.
Luis said that Kelly already has great basic Spanish skills and can roll her R’s very well. He promised that she could call him any time to practice her Spanish with a native speaker.
A little later in 2020, Kelly received a more comprehensive Spanish lesson on air during her talk show. She explained that she spends hours on language learning apps but wanted to practice her Spanish more with a fluent speaker.
Kelly featured her TV show’s producer, Caesar Rivera, as a guest to test her Spanish skills. Caesar read Kelly’s lyrics in Spanish and she had to guess which song they were from.
Kelly actually did very well, only getting two songs incorrect out of six. She did receive a little bit of help from Caesar’s charades-like gestures, which gave her clues about the words he was saying in Spanish.
Kelly Released a Song in Spanish
Kelly’s Spanish lessons clearly paid off, and later in 2020 she released her first song in Spanish. Kelly actually did not stop there; she released her song “I Dare You” in not only in Spanish and English, but also in French, German, Arabic, and Hebrew.
Kelly revealed that the Spanish version was the easiest for her to sing since she is more familiar with that language than the four others she recorded. Kelly said that recording in the different languages was “an incredibly hard process.”
The hard work paid off, though, and Kelly was very proud of her accomplishment. She said that she actually listens to the non-English recordings of her song more often because she enjoys these versions the most.
The singer also explained that she chose to make this song multilingual because of its message as well as the global climate. Kelly released the song during the COVID-19 pandemic and wanted her music to encourage unity and love around the world.
Kelly did not accomplish her Spanish music debut alone. She featured the Spanish pop singer Blas Cantó on the Spanish single, “Te Reto a Amar.”
Kelly’s Spanish on “Te Reto a Amar” sounds flawless. It is only a matter of time before she can fluently understand and speak the Spanish language.