19 Recordings Ltd./RCA/JIVE Label Group/SME

On Nov. 30, 2004, Kelly Clarkson spread her wings and learned how to fly. She released her second album, Breakaway, and cemented her position as a true pop superstar.

Kelly’s 2003 debut album, Thankful — released more than six months after she was crowned the very first American Idol winner and hit #1 with “A Moment Like This” — was successful. It debuted at #1 and spun off the hit “Miss Independent.” But critics still weren’t convinced that Kelly was anything more than a TV creation. Enter Breakaway, which changed all that.

The album was titled after the song “Breakaway,” which had been released in July 2004 as part of The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement soundtrack. Co-written and originally recorded by Avril Lavigne, it was rejected for her debut album and passed to Kelly, who recorded it with a few lyrical changes and made it a top-10 hit.

Avril appeared on Kelly’s talk show in 2022 and talked about the appearance to ABC Audio. “She was like, ‘Well, thanks for the song, by the way.’ And I was like, ‘No, thank you for making it a hit!’ Because I wasn’t going to use it, so we gave it to her,” Avril laughs.

She had no regrets either, saying of Kelly, “Oh my God, she has the best voice, she’s such an incredible vocalist.”

But Breakaway was more than its title track: It produced Kelly’s most successful single ever, the now-iconic “Since U Been Gone,” not to mention “Because of You” and “Behind These Hazel Eyes.”

Breakaway earned Kelly two Grammy Awards and remains her bestselling album, with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide. It also proved that American Idol really could do what it promised: discover a superstar.