A new season of The Voice has yet to be officially announced but that hasn't stopped Kelly Clarkson from having some words for fellow coach John Legend.
It all began when the American Idol alum was challenged to guess the real name of famous celebrities who are best known by their stage names. While sitting backstage at The Kelly Clarkson Show, the singer was shown blurred photos with the person's legal name and a hint. After Kelly correctly guessed Rihanna, she quickly figure out the next person.
"I know this one! John Stephens, this is John Legend," she said in an Instagram Reel. "You named yourself a legend? My name is Kelly Icon."
After seeing Kelly call out John specifically from the list, fans shared how much they enjoyed her clever joke. Some even thought the stage name she came up with for herself was fitting. "Now we need Kelly to release an album with stage name Kelly Icon 👏," one person wrote in the comments section. "✨ KELLY ICON ✨ from now on," another added. "My name is Kelly Icon,' as it should," a different fan said.
Kelly's celebrity challenge comes at a time after she formally announced her decision to legally change her name. Even though the "Stronger" vocalist continues to use Clarkson publicly, she has filed to legally change her name to Kelly Brianne, according to US Weekly. Brianne is Kelly's middle name and now will become her last. "I just kept my middle name for my personal life. I'm still Kelly Clarkson," she told People after the news broke. "I don't think I can change Clarkson at this point. I'm 20 years in!"
As for her Voice costar, Kelly might find John's stage name a little funny but he's still legally John Stephens. During a virtual appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last March, John explained that his stage name was coined by Chicago-based spoken word artist J. Ivy, who he worked with early on in his career.
"We were all in the studio together. He just started calling me 'The Legend' because he thought I sounded like one of our old-school soul legends," he told host Jimmy Fallon. "It just caught on with our little group of friends and then they were like, 'We should call you John Legend.' And it just really was in our little circle."
However, the name became permanent when Kanye West featured John on his mixtape and credited the artist John Legend instead of John Stephens. "Kanye put a mixtape out, and he called me John Legend on [it]," he said. "[The name] just started to spread among more of the people that were listening to our music."
While his stage name was created in his early days when he was still considered an independent artist, many may agree that he has lived up to the title of "legend." As fans may know, John is now an EGOT title holder, which is earned by artists who have obtained an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.
Katherine Tinsley is a pop culture and beauty-obsessed journalist who has worked with Live the Process, The Knockturnal and Dreamlette covering all things beauty, culture and lifestyle. Her work has allowed her to merge all of these interests into her writing and interview style.
