Image from the 'Kelly Clarkson Show' and Lainey Wilson at the BMI Country Awards held at BMI Nashville on November 7, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal/ Tammie Arroyo/Variety via Getty Images

Kelly Clarkson Covers Lainey Wilson's 'Watermelon Moonshine'

Kelly Clarkson and her band stayed true to the original.

Though she typically focuses on the classics through The Kelly Clarkson Show's Kellyoke segments, the program's namesake sometimes uses the platform to give her stamp of approval to some of today's top stars. Recently, Clarkson celebrated the artistry of Lainey Wilson by covering her hit "Watermelon Moonshine."

Videos by Wide Open Country

Clarkson and her hot band were true to the original, delivering a piano-driven, acoustic and steel guitar-accompanied rendition that backed Clarkson's soaring, emotive vocals.

Ahead of an Aug. 5 "Heart Like a Truck" cover during her Las Vegas residency, Clarkson heaped truckloads of praise on Wilson.

"This next song that we're going to do is a country song and I love this artist and this is really hard for me to say, because not shaming any artist, but I tend to love like '80s and '90s country that's just what I grew up on," Clarkson said. "So I love it and I love anything that sounds like or that is a derivative of it. I love it. There's this new artist, I had her on my show and I fell in love with her and her name is Lainey Wilson."

Clarkson isn't the only '90s country lover to take notice of Wilson. Deana Carter, whose "Strawberry Wine" hit inspired "Watermelon Moonshine,"  shared on TikTok her own rendition of Wilson's acoustic mashup of their two songs.

"So proud of my girl [Wilson] and per request I am returning the [song swap] with all the love in my heart!," Carter wrote in the caption, who adds in the video that Wilson's "knocking it out of the park" as a country singer-songwriter.

"Thank you for your influence, you the queen," Wilson said in her response video for someone she considers a "soul sister." "Beautiful inside and out. That is Deana Carter for you right there, y'all. One of the most beautiful people I have ever met. Loves people, loves the Lord."

Wilson's on a roll lately, culminating on Nov. 8 with her first CMA Entertainer of the Year win.

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