Kelly Clarkson’s Tearful ‘Piece by Piece’ Performance Takes on Heartbreaking New Meaning, Says Source

The death of Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, has rocked her fans, who are now looking back at her recent Las Vegas performances in a different light.

When some of her fans attended the Studio Sessions show last weekend, they noticed her swell of emotions during her single, “Piece by Piece.” The song was featured on her 2015 album of the same name and broke down her thoughts about the dad who abandoned her as a kid and Blackstock, who was the father to her daughter, River, who was born in 2014. (Son Remington was born in 2016.)

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The lyrics resonated with the love she shared for Blackstock for being a strong parental figure in their daughter’s life:

“He never walks away / He never asks for money / He takes care of me / He loves me / Piece by piece, he restored my faith / That a man can be kind and a father could stay,” she sang in the chorus of the song.

River Rose Blackstock, Kelly Clarkson, Remington Alexander Blackstock and Brandon Blackstock

After their contentious divorce, Clarkson admitted that her heartbreaking single took on a different meaning. “When I wrote ‘Piece by Piece,’ it was a very hopeful song,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023. “I wasn’t able to say everything at the time. A lot of that song is about what I desired and what I hoped, and what I saw in someone. And it turns out I might not be singing that song again. It turns out that I maybe did marry into what I didn’t want to do in the first place. So, it’s OK now.”

But with Blackstock’s cancer diagnosis, it seems that the script flipped again when it came to the song’s meaning. One audience member, Lois Rodriguez, attended Clarkson’s Las Vegas show last week and noted the 43-year-old pop star’s emotional state during her performance.

“She had to muster the energy to sing ‘Piece by Piece’ without crying,” Rodriguez wrote in the comments on Instagram after Clarkson announced her residency postponement, “I think I understand why now. Unlike her father, though, her children’s father was leaving them in his death. She knew it was inevitable, which might explain the tears. Her kids were there with her, adorable as ever.”

The life that Clarkson had hoped for with Blackstock and their two children didn’t turn out like anyone had anticipated. The tumultuous divorce that kept them both in court for years and Blackstock’s ultimate death isn’t a story anyone would written for themselves. It’s a tragic chapter the family will have to walk through together while Clarkson’s songs hold a completely different meaning.

Before you go, click here to see which celebrity kids lost their parents too soon.