Kelly Clarkson and John Legend are arguably two of the music industry’s most likable stars. But the singers re-recording of the Christmas song, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” has caused a bit of a controversy for some pretty unexpected reasons.
The holiday classic was recently called sexist (and subsequently removed from radio station playlists) in the wake of the #MeToo movement for lyrics like “Say what’s in this drink?”
Earlier this month, Clarkson and Legend (who both currently serve as judges on NBC’s The Voice), released a version of the song with more consent-friendly lyrics. Sharon Osbourne found fault with the remake on a recent episode of The Talk, as Clarkson pointed out on her own talk show.
"What would John Legend do in 40 years if somebody wanted to re-record one of his songs, and there was some group that found it offensive and somebody just went, 'Oh I can change the lyrics on that,'" Osbourne said, adding, "I love John Legend, he's an amazing artist that I really respect. Why do you do this? That's not right? If you don't want the song, don't record it."
On Tuesday’s episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, Clarkson, who was joined by Legend’s wife Chrissy Teigen, laughed while sharing how the drama came about.
“Both John and I have actually cut ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside,’ the original, and we like the original,” she said. “But we noticed that a lot of people didn’t, so we were like, ‘Let’s give them another option,’” she went on to explain of the inspiration for the updated version. “Apparently we killed Christmas,” she said, as Teigen jokingly added, “If I can’t have my creep song, it’s not Christmas.”
The re-recording of the duet was written by Legend and includes a mix of lyrics inspired by the #MeToo movement (like “It’s your body and your choice”) and more humorous lines (see “My daddy will be pacing the floor / What do you still live at home for?”).
While the new song certainly hasn’t helped the great 'Baby, It’s Cold Outside' debate, at least it will give families something to discuss at Christmas dinner.
