“American Idol” Kelly Clarkson is set to perform at America’s most popular sporting event: the Super Bowl.

Clarkson has been chosen to sing the national anthem before the NFL championship game at Indianapolis on Feb. 5, a person familiar with Super Bowl entertainment plans told The Associated Press on Wednesday.  The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made.  The league is expected to reveal the anthem singer later this month.  Since becoming the first winner of “American Idol” a decade ago, Clarkson has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide and had more than a half-dozen singles reach the top 10 in the Billboard Hot 100.

Among her hit songs: “Since U Been Gone” and “My Life Would Suck Without You.”  Her latest album, “Stronger,” was released last year.  Clarkson is currently on tour and appeared as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend.  Also slated to participate in the Super Bowl pregame festivities at Lucas Oil Stadium: country music couple Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, singing “America the Beautiful.”  Grammy-winner Lambert released her latest album, “Four the Record,” last fall.  Shelton is a judge on “The Voice,” a singing competition on NBC, which is broadcasting the Super Bowl this year.  The NFL announced in December that Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Madonna will perform at halftime of the league’s title game.

The event has often wound up the subject of controversy.  At last year’s Super Bowl between the Packers and Steelers in Dallas, pop star Christina Aguilera flubbed a line while belting out the national anthem.  When she was supposed to sing the line “O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming,” Aguilera instead repeated an earlier line, with a slight variation – drawing plenty of attention on social media such as Twitter.  Afterward, Aguilera released a statement saying that she can only hope that everyone could feel her love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through.  Others who have performed the national anthem at the Super Bowl include Carrie Underwood — like Clarkson, an “American Idol” product — Whitney Houston, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, Beyonce and Mariah Carey.

There were also reports of lip syncing by Whitney Houston when she performed in 1991, with Jennifer Hudson facing similar accusations in 2005. Garth Brooks almost didn’t appear for the 1993 event after network bosses initially refused to show a clip of his forthcoming video at the time ‘We Shall Be Free’ owing to what they perceived to be disturbing imagery – they changed their mind at the last minute.  Clarkson’s people haven’t confirmed the news but it has been reported by Rolling Stone magazine. She’ll be joining an all-star cast as Madonna performs during the half time show with M.I.A and Nicki Minaj also expected to feature.  Just a week later, on Feb. 12, the ‘Since U Been Gone’ hitmaker will join Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and more to perform at the 2012 Grammy Awards. If she keeps up this pattern, 2012 may quickly become the year of the Kelly.

Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American pop rock singer-songwriter and also actress. She was born on April 24, 1982 in Fort Worth, Texas. Clarkson was the youngest child of Jeanne Rose and Stephen Michael Clarkson. At the age of six years old, her parents divorced which led them to settle in Burleson with her mother.

Clarkson’s family experienced instability in their finances. She studied in Pauline G Hughes Middle School and Burleson High School. She dreamt of becoming a marine biologist at first but later changed her mind. Clarkson’s singing potential was first noticed by her seventh grade teacher. She was told to try auditioning in their school choir. She was encouraged by an audience member of the musicals she attended like Annie Get your Gun, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Brigadoon that she has to use God’s gift to her and she was destined to sing. Because of her talent in singing, she was offered scholarships from The University of Texas at Austin, University of North Texas, and Berklee, however, Clarkson, turned down the offer because she was hooked in writing songs and wanted to try her luck. She also declined the offer from two record labels namely Jive Records and Interscope Records in late 90s.

Clarkson tried her luck music in Los Angeles in late 2001. However, she became a waitress there and tried supporting roles in the shows Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, and Dharma & Greg.

The luck started to come in to Clarkson when she luckily won the competition as the first American Idol on September 4, 2002. She garnered 58% from the total votes. She sang the single “A Moment like This” that was intended for the winner of the said competition.

On April 15, 2003, Clarkson started to reach the popularity when she released her very first album entitled “Thankful” by the record label RCA Records. Singers like Christina Aguilera, Diane Warren and Babyface contributed songs in the album. The album got the top spot in U.S. Billboard 200. The song “A Moment like This” became certified double platinum for is sold two million copies on December 8, 2003. The album reached the 41st spot in United Kingdom while it is on the 33rd spot in Australia.

She released her second album entitled “Breakaway”. It was released by RCA Records on November 30, 2004. Many critics were impressed by this album because Clarkson was able to reveal her rock side in singing. However, the sale of this album was relatively low compared to the “Thankful” album. The song “Breakaway” was used in the movie “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” in 2004. The second single was entitled “Since you’ve been Gone” which became the most successful single in the album. The song got the second spot in the U.S. while top five around the world. Clarkson got a Grammy award of this song by being the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. It was followed by a second award for the Best Pop Vocal Album.

The third album was entitled “My December” which was released on June 26, 2007 in the United States. It sold 291,000 albums which is higher than the album “Breakaway”.

The fourth album was released on March 10, 2009 entitled “All I Ever Wanted”. It sold 255,000 copies in U.S. which made it number one in Billboard 200 for two weeks.

The fifth album of Clarkson was entitled “Stronger” which was produced in Australia on October 21, 2011 while the release date in United States was on October 24, 2011. She collaborated with various artists like Greg Kurstin, Steve Jordan, and Toby Gad.

Kelly Clarkson Photo Gallery

Every time the original Idol Kelly Clarkson releases a new album the media trots out questions about why Kelly’s fodder for so many lesbian rumors.  With the release of her new record Stronger around the corner the folks at E! News thought it was appropriate to once again ask Kelly why she is the subject of so many gay rumors.

In addition, in the smallest news flash of the day, Kelly’s answer is pretty much the same answer she gave when dogged about lesbian rumors in 2009 when she said that she’s straight and that lesbian rumors are ruining her dating life.  She told E! News even people keep saying that she is gay even if she is not.  According to her, she is pretty sure she had never made out with a girl and it is just not helping her because she is straight.  She added that no boy wants to hit on her because she makes mean songs about them and they think she is gay.

Since Kelly Clarkson said that, she has never been in love, rumors that she is gay fires up.  The American Idol star appeared on The View to talk about her sexuality and getting married and all that.  According to Kelly, she was from a small town so like everyone’s married with children or about to have children.  She said that it is a little hard when she go home and people asked her why is she not married which is the reason people think she is gay.  She explained that it does not happen for everyone right off the bat.

So then, after Kelly dispelled rumors about being a lesbian, the ladies of The View made her partake in a little basketball game.  Before shooting hoops, Clarkson told the ladies that she is extremely flattered when she do get hit on by girls and she think it is hot but she is not into it adding that she like boys.

Clarkson’s fifth album, Stronger, was released this week.  She took The View’s stage to sing Mr. Know It All, and she rocked it. One thing is for sure, Kelly Clarkson has a voice.  Kelly Clarkson is making a pretty big comeback as it was announced on Thursday that she will be a true VH1 Diva.  Along with Jennifer Hudson, Jessie J, and Florence and the Machine, Clarkson is in the lineup for the VH1 Divas concert event.

This year, VH1 is paying tribute to the cities where soul music is born—Chicago, Detroit, London, Memphis and Philadelphia.  The ladies will pay homage to those cities with their own hits as well as some classics. VH1′s Lee Rolontz said in a statement that this year’s telecast will showcase the vast impact soul music has had on the 21st century’s music and pop culture landscape as their talented and diverse lineup will attest.  The singer expressed her excitement via Twitter saying that she is super stoked to announce that she will be performing at VH1 Divas.  The VH1 Divas concert event will air December 19 at 9 p.m.