Kelly Clarkson Covers Britney Spears Days After Spears Called Her Out Over A 2007 Interview

Kelly Clarkson is seemingly on a quest to cover every song in the history of recorded music and she’s making good progress with the “Kellyoke” segment on The Kelly Clarkson Show. On today’s episode, she put a rock edge on one of the defining pop hits of the 2000s, Britney Spears’ “Womanizer.”

“Womanizer” is a solid song to perform, of course, but there’s some key context here: In a now-deleted Instagram post from a few days ago, Spears reacted to a clip of Clarkson from a 2007 radio interview, writing, “‘I don’t forget’ … don’t you just wish she would say she’s kidding ??? Clarkson … in a world where bullying has been heartbreaking, I’ve had my share …. Can we get an AWW ??? Psss … I’m not kidding … play on friends, play on !!!”

In the clip, Clarkson, who was 25 at the time, says, “Man, but wouldn’t it be funny if she’s just totally screwing with everyone? ‘Cause it’d be real funny if she were like, ‘Just kidding!’ I mean, think about it: She’s done no press for her album, which I love by the way… She’s done no press, she gets so much press off all this other stuff.”

In 2007, Spears famously spent some time in rehab, shaved her head, and was otherwise regularly in the news for reasons related to personal struggles. In February 2008, Spears was placed under her infamous conservatorship.

Clarkson has not publicly responded to Spears’ post.

After that clip started making the rounds, Bert Weiss, the interviewer in the video, cleared up a perceived misconception, tweeting, “Im the dude that interviewed @KellyClarkson and I can tell you that someone edited the actual interview to make it look like Kelly was talking sh%$ about @britneyspears. […] Truth is when you listen to the entire […] interview [Clarkson] is actually super supportive of [Spears]. So Brit is holding onto this grudge ’cause she’s misinformed.”

Watch Clarkson’s “Womanizer” cover above.