“Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees is a great song for many reasons. It’s about survival in the big city, and its propulsive disco drumbeat is so close to a typical heartbeat that CPR instructors ask people to hum it in their heads while administering chest compressions. It seems that in 1977, with the song, the Bee Gees got to the core of what it means to be human and did so in amazing white silk pants.
“[“Stayin’ Alive”] was based on Tony having a big night out in New York and the whole concept of being famous by dancing,” the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb said, according to uDiscoverMusic. “The title came up real early on, but then the song started to evolve. The title is really what the song means about surviving on the streets, sort of a social comment.”
Kelly Clarkson sings ‘Stayin’ Alive’
Talk show host Kelly Clarkson took the song’s meaning a step further by singing it in the Halloween edition of her Kellyoke segment. Clarkson sang it against a backdrop of bodies rising from the grave, turning the song’s meaning into an impassioned fight for her life. For this version, instead of surviving on the streets of New York City in the late ‘70s, Clarkson had to sing her way through a night of terror.
For the performance, Clarkson dressed as Madeline Ashton, Meryl Streep’s character from 1992’s Death Becomes Her. At the beginning of the performance, she’s joined by background singers: one dressed as Goldie Hawn’s character and another as Ernest, who was played by Bruce Willis.
“Look at this mansion, though! This is amazing, y’all. It’s just like the one Meryl lived in,” Clarkson said. “Those are actually the stairs Ernest pushed her down. There are the candelabras and, of course, Meryl’s portrait, which I’m seriously considering just keeping up year-round because I love her.”
What’s interesting is that after a slowed-down intro, the song picks up the pace and gets an ‘80s Michael Jackson “Thriller” vibe, which lets Clarkson show off her powerful voice. Her take contrasts sharply with the falsetto sung by Barry Gibb and his brothers in the original version.
Clarkson has never been quiet about her love for Meryl Streep
To Clarkson fans, it’s not a huge surprise that she dressed up as a character from a Meryl Streep film; the talk show host hasn’t been quiet about her love for her. When Clarkson met Streep in 2018 at the Golden Globes, she told the Mamma Mia! star that she had been a huge fan of her since she was 8.
In 2019, Clarkson launched an online campaign, #FromKellyToMeryl, to try to get Streep to appear on her show. Sadly, for Clarkson, it still hasn’t happened.
Last year, Clarkson sang ‘I Put a Spell on You’ for Halloween
In 2025, Clarkson dressed as Bette Midler from Hocus Pocus and gave a scorching performance of “I Put a Spell on You, originally popularized by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
