Kelly Clarkson and Ryan Teddar at war; Beyonce silent

Already sung?
It’s too late to apologise … it’s toooo laaaaate
Kelly Clarkson is fighting mad. Oh yes. It all stems, you see, from the fact that she worked with hitmaker Ryan Tedder (also known as the frontman of OneRepublic) on her recent album and her discovery that one song - her new single - “Already Gone” sounds rather a lot like Beyoncé’s “Halo”, also written by Ryan.

“We wrote about six songs together, four or five of them made the album. It was all fine and dandy. I’d never heard of a song called ‘Halo’,” Kelly told Canada’s CBC. “Her album came out when my album was already being printed. No-one’s gonna be sittin’ at home, thinking ‘Man, Ryan Tedder gave Beyoncé and Kelly the same track to write to.’ No, they’re just gonna be saying I ripped someone off. I called Ryan and said, ‘I don’t understand. Why would you do that?’”

Kelly was so furious about the similarity that she tried to prevent her record company releasing it as a single. As a compromise she will only perform it acoustically in promo spots.Now Ryan Teddar has come out firing, insisting that the world is hearing wrong because there is NO WAY that “Already Gone” sounds like “Halo”.

Hear that, ears?

“‘Already Gone’ is one of the best songs I’ve written or produced since ‘Bleeding Love’ and stands tall on it’s own merits apart from ‘Halo’,” big-notes Ryan. “They are two entirely different songs conceptually, melodically and lyrically and I would never try to dupe an artist such as Kelly Clarkson or Beyoncé into recording over the same musical track, the idea is both hurtful and absurd. I think when people hear ‘Already Gone’ they will hear what I hear — one of the greatest female vocalists on earth giving her most haunting and heart-breaking performance on a song she helped write. I challenge people to listen and form their own opinions.”

Look, it’s not unusual for songwriters to come up with songs that sound the same – Max Martin has done it for a decade – but Ryan could have been a bit more honest and released a statement more along the lines of “Oops! My bad.”

Otherwise people might point out the fact that the structure of the recently leaked “Strangers”, a song he wrote for Leona Lewis, is spookily similar to “Battlefield”, his recent offering for Jordin Sparks.

What do you think?




Scott Keenan
Thank you sleep-ins o'clock