Kelly Clarkson gifted pop music with one of its all-time most memorable choruses when she released “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” in 2011. But after more than a decade of singing the song at presumably every concert she’s performed since, it all becomes a blur to her. During a recent game of Pop Pop Quiz with Anne Hathaway on The Kelly Clarkson Show, the singer remembered the words to her own song but forgot she was the one who sang it.
“As we’ve witnessed, Kelly Clarkson doesn’t always know her own lyrics,” game host Amber Ruffin set up the prompt, referring to the last time Hathaway was on the show and Clarkson didn’t recognize “Since U Been Gone,” probably her most defining single. “But that’s OK, because what doesn’t kill you makes you a fighter, and makes your footsteps even … what?”
Clarkson beat Hathaway to the buzzer, shouting out “lighter” to complete the lyric. It’s a good thing the game was a battle of remembering song lyrics rather than proper credits because the singer followed her answer up with a totally wrong one: “That’s Christina Aguilera!” It was not, in fact, Christina Aguilera.
“So you’ll notice, America, if you know my catalog at all, ’cause I don’t, I thought I was singing Christina Aguilera’s song ‘Fighter,’” Clarkson said later on. “And I was singing mine, ‘Stronger.’ It’s one of those days!”
Hathaway, meanwhile, is usually only responsible for remembering her lines in films. Her appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show was in support of her forthcoming Prime Video film The Idea of You, out May 2. The actress portrays a 40-year-old single mother who falls in love with a 24-year-old boy band member during a trip to Coachella with her teenage daughter.
Her co-star Nicholas Galitzine became Hathaway’s love interest on-screen and remains a close friend off-screen. During their press tour for the film, Hathaway whipped up a rap to help people remember how to pronounce the actor’s last name after seeing him consistently have to correct them. It goes: “Nick Galitzine, Nick Galitzine / Got a face for a magazine, but he’s more than just a beauty queen / Can’t wait to hear everybody scream for Nick Galitzine.”
It’s quite unlikely that anyone would ever accidentally attribute those lyrics to Christina Aguilera.
