The judges of 'The Voice' season 21 performed live the holiday-themed track for the first time without rehearsals during Kelly's 'When Christmas Comes Around' last year.
- Dec 2, 2022
AceShowbiz - Kelly Clarkson and Ariana Grande give their fans an early Christmas present. The "Because of You" singer and the "Thank U, Next" songstress have released the live version of their duet "Santa Can't You Hear Me".
On Thursday, December 1, Kelly turned to her Instagram page to announce the news. "It's time, y'all! Get into the holiday spirit and listen to 'Santa, Can't You Hear Me' my duet with @arianagrande now and add it to all your holiday playlists," she wrote along with a snippet of the holiday-themed song, along with a Santa Claus and musical notes emojis.
Kelly and Ariana released the studio version of "Santa, Can't You Hear Me" in October last year. Then during Kelly's "When Christmas Comes Around" special aired on NBC in December of that year, the pop stars pulled off an incredible performance of the holiday duet for the very first time and with no rehearsals.
Speaking of the performance, Kelly told Entertainment Tonight, "It literally was the first time that we had been in the same room singing it." The winner of the first season of "American Idol" went on adding, "And it's a pretty detailed song!"
"Oh, it's a vocal," Ariana, who joined Kelly for the interview, agreed. She added, "We switch harmonies almost every verse, or every pre-chorus, we flip-flop what we're singing. It was really fun. Thank god we did it, but we were definitely out of body, hovering." Kelly then boasted, "We're professional," as the pair shared a high five.
The song, off of Kelly's holiday album, also titled "When Christmas Comes Around", was originally written as a solo track. Kelly revealed that she almost scrapped it entirely before she got the inspiration to sing with Ariana after the two performed together on "The Voice" season 21 premiere.
"We all did this group performance, and I was like, 'Oh my god, I should make it a duet!' 'Cause I loved how we sounded together," Kelly recalled. "I asked her and she said yes, but it was last-minute and we're all very busy, so we never rehearsed, ever."
