Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 08/01/2011 at 4:42 PM News

The Popdust Files: kelly clarkson

Kelly Clarkson is starting a girl group. Let’s repeat that: Kelly Clarkson is starting a girl group! !!!

OK, time to back up. When solo artists start girl groups, results vary. For every worthy collaboration, like Miranda Lambert’s already-promoted-today-but-why-not-once-more Pistol Annies or rock supergroup Wild Flag, or even just one-off teamups–”Lady Marmalade” is the gold standard here–there are disappointing detours, like Michelle Branch with the lesser Wreckers. It doesn’t matter how good the individual artists are; some groups just work, and some don’t. (The same goes for solo artists; how many failed solo careers were spawned from amazing groups?)

As for Clarkson’s group, it’s far too early to judge quality–a few wordless seconds of singing don’t tell us much either way–but there are details, sort of. It’s called Already Famous, one of those random “hey, let’s pick a nail polish color!” coinings, and the other members are backup singers Jill Pickering and Kate Rapier. All three vocalists, the group said, will trade off lead vocals, but most of their material comes from Clarkson’s old demos, making this seem sort of like a glorified Kelly Clarkson backing singer group. (Not a bad thing.) They have a Twitter and are apparently taking questions.

That’s about all we know (thanks, Idolator for a lot of it.) It’s enough, though, to get us excited. After all, a Kelly Clarkson girl group means new Kelly Clarkson music. And no matter how many leaks we hear, there’s still room for more.