Kelly Clarkson Honors Dolly Parton With ‘I Will Always Love You’

Dolly Parton and Kelly Clarkson gave an emotional tribute to Whitney Houston to mark the tenth anniversary of the passing at the Academy of Country Music Awards.

This year’s event was hosted at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and saw country music icon Dolly act as co-host alongside Jimmie Allen and Gabby Barrett.

True to form, the 76-year-old dialed up her look for the night, with several costume changes and couldn’t resist picking up the mic.

At one point she pranced on stage wearing a glittering gold mini dress before going full rhinestone cowboy in a mirrored jumpsuit.

For her performance- a duet of her classic hit Big Dreams and Faded Jeans with Kelsea Ballerini she swapped out her look again this time option for a fringed shirt and cowboy hat.

It wasn’t her headline-grabbing outfits that stole on the night but rather a cover of another one of her hits performed by Kelly Clarkson.

Clarkson belted out her take of I Will Always Love You, which was written by and first recorded by Dolly but made famous worldwide by Whitney Houston, as a tribute to the late singer and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, including Dolly.

She praised Kelly’s performance saying: ‘I know that Whitney is smiling down on us tonight so thank you very much -she would be proud of that.’

‘I was backstage trying not to cry my false eyelashes off – slinging snot in every direction and tears, but anyway, that was an amazing job.’

Dolly dedicated the 2022 ceremony to the people of Ukraine and sent ‘love and hope’ to those affected by the conflict.

Also taken to the stage on the night was Carrie Underwood who turned heads in a rainbow-hued shredded mini dress on the blue carpet before swapping her lookup for a black studded number for her performance that saw her dangle from the ceiling on a hoop.

Carrie performed If I Didn’t Love You alongside Jason Aldean which later went on to win Single of the Year.

‘Thank you, Jesus, first and foremost. Thank you fans for requesting and streaming. Thank you to all of our teams, who have been absolutely amazing. Country radio, of course,’ she said in her acceptance speech.

Other attendees at the awards included Carly Pearce, Morgane Stapleton, Chris Stapleton as well as Brittany Kerr.

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