Kelly Clarkson‘s new single, “Where Have You Been,” is a torchy ballad in which she sings about finding the right person after waiting for a long time. But the song isn’t about her, it’s about two fictional characters.

As she explained on her Sirius XM channel, “I’ve rarely done something like this, but I was watching Only Murders in the Building. It’s Martin Short‘s face: He says to Meryl Streep‘s character in the show, ‘Where have you been?'”

In the show, Short plays washed-up Broadway director Oliver Putnam; Streep is Loretta Durkin, an actress Oliver casts in his show in season 3. The two fall in love and get married at the end of season 4.

“It’s like, he’s in awe,” she continued. “And I was like, ‘Has anyone written a song [about this]? ‘Cause the song is happy, ’cause it’s, like, you found something that you thought was almost basically a unicorn and did not exist.”

Kelly sings in the song, “I almost gave up/ My light was so dim/ And now here you are/ Where have you been?”

This is Kelly’s first new, non-Christmas music since she put out her album Chemistry in 2024. It’s not clear if it’s a standalone single or part of a larger album project.

In other Kelly Clarkson news, she was asked on her talk show Thursday, “If you had to be stranded on an island with one former famous co-worker, who would you choose and why?” Her answer was fellow American Idol alum Jennifer Hudson, with whom she coached The Voice. As Kelly noted, “She seems like a fun hang for a while.”

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