Kelly Clarkson had the chance, but blew it when it came to a sing-off with Anne Hathaway.
The Oscar winner stopped by “The Kelly Clarkson Show” on Tuesday to promote her new Apple TV+ series “WeCrashed,” but mostly it was just an excuse to remind everyone that, yes, all those accolades for “Les Miserables” were well deserved.
Exuding major theater kid energy, Hathaway pulled ahead of Clarkson in a game called “Sing That Name That Tune,” which challenged the stars to identify and then perform songs after hearing only a few chords.
After comedian and game host Matt Iseman told Clarkson that she “better start stepping up your game,” the Grammy-winning singer asked the powers that be to “play a freaking song I’ll know.”
Soon enough, the opening notes of the chorus to Clarkson’s early 2000s smash hit “Since U Been Gone” began playing. But before the talk show host could even let out a sound, Hathaway beat her to the mic to deliver a fully committed performance of the pop song.
A defeated Clarkson then promptly collapsed on stage after coming to the realization that Hathaway recognized perhaps her most famous track before she did.
“How did you know it from just that?” Clarkson yelled, to which Hathaway responded, “Kelly Clarkson, if you do not understand how much we all love that song. Everybody here knew it on the first one. Everybody here knew it.”
Clarkson proceeded to let out some non-daytime-television-friendly expletives and lament how “embarrassing” it was to lose at her own game.
Then, quoting a fellow “American Idol” winner, Clarkson said, “Jesus, take the wheel” before daring to face off against Hathaway once again.
Hathaway grew up singing and has performed throughout her career, which ultimately led her to portray Fantine in Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of “Les Miserables.” The actor received extensive vocal training for the role for which she took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
As for whether we’ll hear her sing again anytime soon, Hathaway recently teased that she hopes to star on Broadway once her children are older.
“There’s a lot of really awesome musicals [for] women in their 50s,” she told WSJ Magazine in an interview published Tuesday. “There’s ‘Woman of the Year,’ there’s ‘Mame.’ ... I am going to eat every last bit of scenery and then pick my teeth with the splinters.”
Watch the clip from “The Kelly Clarkson Show” below.