--- title: Kelly Clarkson Completely Screwed Up President Obama’s Name description: Kelly Clarkson apologizes for mispronouncing Barack Obama's name before he was the president. canonical: https://time.com/4519555/kelly-clarkson-on-obama/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-05T15:49:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:37:20.684Z og:title: Kelly Clarkson on Completely Screwing Up the President's Name og:description: “Everyone was like, ‘You’ll never see him again’,” Clarkson said. og:url: https://time.com/4519555/kelly-clarkson-on-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12e4ffdb94757502/6988a89b2dce0133bc9eae44/kelly-clarkson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" - Season 13 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kelly Clarkson on Completely Screwing Up the President's Name twitter:description: “Everyone was like, ‘You’ll never see him again’,” Clarkson said. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12e4ffdb94757502/6988a89b2dce0133bc9eae44/kelly-clarkson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kelly Clarkson Is Sorry For Screwing Up President Obama's Name That Time > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a958c87e-d31d-45d1-bdde-68c63c0757ee&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 5, 2016 3:49 PM UTC  Emmy Award-nominated "Jimmy Kimmel Live" airs every weeknight (11:35 p.m. - 12:41 a.m., ET), packed with hilarious comedy bits and features a diverse lineup of guests including celebrities, athletes, musicians, comedians and humorous human interest subjects. The guests for TUESDAY, AUGUST 18 included actor Johnny Knoxville, NBA World Champion Steph Curry (shoes, The Curry Two) and musical guest Kelly Clarkson. Emmy Award-nominated "Jimmy Kimmel Live" airs every weeknight (11:35 p.m. - 12:41 a.m., ET), packed with hilarious comedy bits and features a diverse lineup of guests including celebrities, athletes, musicians, comedians and humorous human interest subjects. The guests for TUESDAY, AUGUST 18 included actor Johnny Knoxville, NBA World Champion Steph Curry (shoes, The Curry Two) and musical guest Kelly Clarkson. Randy Holmes-Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 5, 2016 3:49 PM UTC [Kelly Clarkson](http://time.com/4517991/kelly-clarkson-on-ellen/?iid=sr-link3) is human and like most humans, she makes mistakes. Like that time she botched “baby senator” Barack Obama’s name while introducing him to a crowd. “I completely butchered it,” Clarkson told [Seth Meyers](http://time.com/4490309/seth-meyers-donald-trump-late-night/?iid=sr-link3) when she stopped by _Late Night_ on Tuesday night. “I wanted to die. I wanted to fall down and pretend like, ‘Oh she had a stroke’ or something. I wanted to fake some horrible thing.” [ Clarkson](http://time.com/4382126/kelly-clarkson-soul-atlantic-records/?iid=sr-link9) felt terrible about her error, as she told Meyers, “I’m like ‘Oh my God this new senator… I feel so horrible. I’ve got to find him and apologize.’” She couldn’t find him at the event, though, and her friends told her to let it go, consoling her with the thought that she wouldn’t even remember the mix-up in the future. “Everyone was like, ‘You’ll never see him again’,” she said. Three years later, she performed at now [President Obama](http://time.com/barack-michelle-obama-love-story-photos/?iid=sr-link3)’s inauguration. 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