Kelly Clarkson ''had to cry'' to get her music released.

The 32-year-old singer struggled to forge the career she wanted even after winning the first season of 'American Idol' in 2002 because her label wanted her to release soul music instead of pop when she started out.

She explained: ''I wanted to do pop, because that means ''popular'', and anything that was soulful. But it was hard to get that across at first. With 'Miss Independent', I had to cry in my label's office to get it out [as a single].''

Despite having six successful solo albums, she found opposition towards her eagerness to be a pop singer difficult, although she soon managed to persuade her label to let her create the music she wanted to make.

She said: ''They wanted me to sing like the Aretha songs I'd done on the show, and I was, like: 'I'm 20 years old, I can do big ballads, but I also love guitars.' They didn't want to do a lot of production with me. It was the same thing that would happen with Adele - she does ballads with a piano. I said: 'That's beautiful, but can I do other stuff?'''

However, the star - who has eight-month-old daughter River Rose with husband Brandon Blackstock - believes it was her drive and vision which has led to her having such a long and illustrious career.

She told The Guardian newspaper: ''I don't know why I've lasted - you focus on the music, and sometimes the stars align and sometimes they don't. I think it helped that I knew what I wanted to do from the start.''