Kelly Clarkson loves helping her The Voice team members, and as such, she invited her season 20 team member, Corey Ward to her afternoon talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, to promote his new song “Close to Love.” In addition to a sit down chat, the two performed a “Kellyoke” duet of the song “Falling Slowly” from the movie Once.
Corey’s journey on The Voice was quite the climb. His televised performance on season 19 in 2020 didn’t earn a chair. But he returned the following season and got Kelly and John Legend to push their buttons. Corey auditioned for the show at his family’s insistence. His mother had cancer, and he did it for her.
About his new song, Corey stated, “When I write, I really want it to be relatable,” he continued, “What it’s about is…getting in a relationship that feels like love and being scared to leave it.” Corey added, “What if I never get this close again?” Corey believes that some people get stuck in relationships because they are afraid the current relationship will be as good as it gets.
The singer compares “Close to You” to “Already Gone,” the Kelly Clarkson song he sang on The Voice. “You sang it better!” Kelly declared. “I connect to you a lot musically,” Corey confessed. “I was so blessed to be here, and very grateful for you.”
On The Voice, Corey wowed the coaches with a performance of “Dancing on My Own.” He won the Playoffs Instant Save with an emotional performance of “Lose You to Love Me.” Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the season featured only 3 weeks of live shows. Voters eliminated the singer the following week in the the Semi-Finals.
