INTERVIEW: Kelly Clarkson On Covering 'It's Quiet Uptown' From The 'Hamilton Mixtape' | Behind The Song

Behind The Song is a reoccurring feature, where we take an in-depth look at a track and its backstory because, let's be real, there's nothing like getting the scoop about a record directly from the artists themselves.

It takes a certain something to maintain control over emotions, especially when you're pregnant. That's what happened to Kelly Clarkson when the original "American Idol" champ received a pitch to cover a number from Tony Award-winning Broadway hit, "Hamilton." At 33-years-old and well into her second pregnancy, the singer hadn't seen the musical, but took the advice of Craig Kallman, the Atlantic Records head honcho in charge of her recent label partnership, to cover "It's Quiet Uptown" for the recently released Hamilton Mixtape.

The ballad, which was written by Broadway maestro and star of the show, Lin-Manuel Miranda, arrives at a pivotal part in the story when the Hamiltons experience the unimaginable: the loss of their child. You don't need to put two and two together to realize that asking Clarkson to offer her own rendition was a difficult undertaking.

Earlier this week, Kelly took to iHeartRadio HQ in New York City for a one-on-one interview to speak about the heartbreaking number and how the track came about in our newest installment of "Behind The Song." Take a look below!

Artist: Kelly Clarkson

Title: "It's Quiet Uptown"

Producer: !llmind

Release Date: November 4, 2016

Album: The Hamilton Mixtape

Writer: Lin-Manuel Miranda

On Her Strategy When Making "It's Quiet Uptown":

"Whenever I was given 'It's Quiet Uptown,' I hadn't seen 'Hamilton,' so I was eight months pregnant with my son, and so it was just about the son dying in the song. I was like, 'This is the worst thing to send to a pregnant woman, ever.' Then it was kind of cool because my producer, Jason Albert, and I had never seen the musical. We didn't have any pressure because I definitely think we would have if we'd seen the musical. That would have been intimidating. We ended up going to the studio. They were like, 'If you heard this song on the radio, what do you think it would sound like?' Obviously it's a Broadway musical, and it's in Broadway musical form. There's like three people singing, and it's this epic moment in the musical. We just did what we thought would be cool with it, and keep it dark but keep moments that were uplifting and big and just kind of keep the essence of the song, because it's very beautifully written, but it's also extremely sad. There's no reeling it in at the end. It's just unimaginable. It's just super sad. We tried to do that, but also keep a little of the classic form of what they were portraying emotionally from the vocalists in the musical. All we had to go on was the song that was sent to us. We hadn't seen it. It's one of those things that you do because you want to do it, and you love it, and then it turns out it was really super cool, and you had no idea. I love when that happens. I think we all do."

On Her Reaction Watching "Hamilton" After Recording The Song:

"I saw the play with my husband, and we laughed, cried, laughed, cried some more. We're just looking at each other in awe going, 'People were talking this up a lot,' and I was like, 'I've seen a lot of musicals.' I'm very hard sometimes. It was so good. It was just so fresh, and it's just revolutionary. It was so different. If you see it on paper, what it is, you go, 'That sounds weird.' Then you see it live, and it's magical. It's cool. Lin had this idea. He was passionate about it, he loved it, and that's what happens when you do something you love. It ends up being something that people [see] his passion for it. It makes everybody else so much passionate as well, because it just feeds through the music and everything. I loved it. My husband loved it too. He made a cowboy cry, so I'm just saying, that's hard."

On What It Was Like Being Part Of The Star-Studded Tracklist: 

"John Legend is on the album as well. Busta [Rhymes]. I mean there's so many people on the album that you would never find on an album all together, in general, unless it's like a Now [That's What I Call Music!]. You would never as a cohesive project find artists like this, and I think that's a testament to how powerful 'Hamilton' really is. I love it, too, because we have younger kids that maybe aren't like, 'Yay, Broadway.' They didn't grow up around musical theater like maybe I did because I'm a nerd and I love music. It's cool because it reaches them in a different way than I think other musicals can. Once they see that, they go, 'Oh, maybe I might like this musical.' Then maybe 'I like this one.' It's cool. It's a great gateway for kids that maybe wouldn't have been open to doing that. All these artists are so amazing, and we're all different. John Legend's version of 'History Has Its Eyes On You.' Andra Day's 'Burn.' 'Satisfied' with Sia. All of them are so epic. I'm also glad I never heard those before my version because it would have been intimidating. You know what it is? As a singer, you have to always start from a great song. All of them are great songs, so it really doesn't matter which one any artist was going to cut on the album. They're all amazing.

Photo: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio