U.S. singer Kelly Clarkson to visit Korea in May

U.S. pop singer Kelly Clarkson will be visiting Korea next month to serve as a judge on the singing competition show "Super Star K-Season Two," according to a press release by Korea's cable music channel Mnet.

Mnet announced that the singer will be coming to Seoul to participate as a judge in the preliminary round of auditions for "Super Star K", which is Korea's equivalent of popular U.S. show "American Idol" that Clarkson won in 2002.

"Clarkson is the biggest star to come out of 'American Idol' and she is still a very active singer," an official at Mnet was quoted as saying.

Clarkson was the winner of the first season of "Idol", which has turned many of its winners and contestants into stars overnight including Clay Aiken (Season 2), Fantasia Barrino (Season 3), Carrie Underwood (Season 4), David Cook (Season 7), Kris Allen and Adam Lambert (Season 8).

The songstress will be judging the vocal talents of Korean contestants from the city of Daegu, which will take place May 3 at Seoul's CJ E&M Center. British opera singer Paul Potts, who won popular U.K. show "X-Factor," served as a guest judge on the first season of "Super" last year.

Clarkson, 27, has released four studio albums since winning "Idol" which have sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Some of her many hit singles include "A Moment Like This", "Breakaway", "Since U Been Gone", "Because of You" and the recent "My Life Would Suck Without You".

She has won a number of awards to date including two Grammys in 2006 for Best Pop Vocal Album for her second album "Breakaway" and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the single "Since U Been Gone".

Reporter : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@asiae.co.kr