Kelly Clarkson plans new Christmas album; watch her duet with Chris Martin on “Since U Been Gone”

Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal

The third season of Kelly Clarkson‘s Emmy-winning talk show premiered on Monday, but the singer will have another gift for fans later this year: According to The New York Times, a Christmas album is on the way.

According to The Times, while launching the new season of the show, Kelly is “simultaneously preparing a new Christmas album for release later this year.”  Kelly’s first Christmas album, 2013’s Wrapped in Red, featured the now-perennial hit “Underneath the Tree.”  Since then, she’s released several more holiday songs, including last year’s duet with Brett Eldredge, “Under the Mistletoe.”

Speaking about her show, which is being positioned to take over for Ellen DeGeneres‘ show when it concludes its run, Kelly tells The Times, “No one can take over for Ellen. It’s an iconic show.” She says comparing her talk-show-host style to Ellen’s is as useless as comparing her to other female singers.

“I’m never going to be Whitney Houston — I’m never going to be Cyndi Lauper, Reba [McEntire] or Trisha [Yearwood] or Mariah [Carey],” Kelly notes. “I’m going to be me. I think that’s fine. There’s room for everyone at the table.”

Meanwhile, on today’s episode of Kelly’s show, Coldplay‘s Chris Martin serenaded her with a rendition of his band’s song “Green Eyes,” which she described as one of her favorites tunes.  Then, Kelly sang “Since U Been Gone” as Chris accompanied her on his acoustic guitar. 

At another point during Chris’ appearance, he serenaded Kelly’s two children, River and Remington, with the Coldplay hit “Yellow” — until Remy interrupted the song to announce that he had to go to the bathroom.

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