Original American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson won awards for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance during last night's 48th Annual Grammy Awards, completing a remarkable three-year transformation from previously unknown reality TV show contestant to peer-recognized respected recording artist
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Clarkson beat fellow nominees Sheryl Crow, Gwen Stefani, Bonnie Raitt, and Mariah Carey (considered the category's favorite) to win the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance award for her smash-hit "Since U Been Gone" single while "Breakaway," her second album, won the Best Pop Vocal Album award over albums from Crow, Stefani, Fiona Apple, and Paul McCartney.
Unlike the Billboard Music Awards or American Music Awards which base their awards on popularity, sales, and chart achievements, the Grammy Awards winners are determined by the voting members of The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, an industry organization comprised of musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals.
Similar to her Summer 2002 reaction to discovering that she had won the inaugural season of American Idol, broke down in tears while accepting her first award of the night.
"I'm sorry I'm crying again on national television," Clarkson noted as she tried to get through her acceptance speech for her Best Female Pop Vocal Performance win. "You have no idea what this means to me, thank you so much."
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"I don't know what's going on, but thank you Jesus and God," Clarkson gushed after accepting her second Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album. "I'm so proud of myself for not crying [this time]," she noted during her second acceptance speech.
Clarkson is the first American Idol contestant to ever win a Grammy Award. Although she had received four nominations of her own for last night's awards, American Idol 3 winner Fantasia Barrino failed to win any of the four R&B categories in which she was nominated.