Former American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson hits out at Taylor Swift’s management after they defended the country star’s off-key performance at the Grammy…

Mounting criticism has continued to escalate following Taylor Swift’s Grammy performance on Sunday night. The 20 year old American country sensation, who picked up four awards, including Album of the Year, sang a medley of three songs including Fleetwood Mac’s Rhianna accompanied by Stevie Nicks, but has been widely criticised since for being flat and off key.

In response, Scott Borchetta of Swift’s Big Machine Records has spoken out in her defence but in doing so has sparked a war of words with singer Kelly Clarkson.

“This is not American Idol. This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note,” said Borchetta. “This is about a true artist and writer and communicator. It’s not about that technically perfect performance.

“Taylor is the voice of this generation. She speaks directly to and they speak directly back to her.”
Blaming the floors in Swift’s performance on unforeseen technical problems, he went on to add; “It’s that classic thing that critics do of building something up and then wanting to tear it down.”

However, it seems that Borchetta’s reference to American Idol hit a raw nerve with Kelly Clarkson, who rose to fame after winning the first series of the competition in 2002

“I understand defending your artist obviously because I have done the same in the past for artists I like, including Taylor, so you might see why it’s upsetting to read you attacking American Idol for producing simply vocalists that hit ‘the high notes’” said Clarkson, 27, in an open letter on her website.

“Every artist has a bad performance or two and that is understandable, but throwing blame will not make the situation at hand any better. I have been criticised left and right for having shaky performances before (and they were shaky) and what my manager or label executives say to me and the public is ‘I’ll kick butt next time’ or ‘every performance isn’t going to be perfect’.

“I bring this up because you should take a lesson from these people and instead of lashing out at other artists (that in your ‘humble’ opinion lack true artistry), you should simply take a breath and realise that sometimes things won’t go according to plan or work out and that’s okay.”

Clarkson signed off the letter saying, “Sincerely, one of those contestants from American Idol who only made it because of her high notes.”

Clarkson won two Grammys in 2006.