Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson delivered a powerful and stunning performance of Reba’s 1993 hit ‘Does He Love You’ at the 2018 American Country Music (ACM) Award. This was one of the three ACM Flashback performance duets for that Sunday night, April 15. The ACM Flashbacks feature one iconic country singer and one modern hitmaker to honor the greatest songs in country music history.
Kelly Clarkson, who was then Reba McEntire’s daughter-in-law, introduced the song with a memory of the first time they performed the song together 16 years ago. She laughed saying how Reba was so nice to her even though she totally sucked that time.
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Nevertheless, she clearly made a comeback with that duet. The two slayed the performance with their powerful vocals marking it as one of the best renditions of the song ever. Additionally, the performance was graced with Reba’s iconic red velvet dress with a dramatic plunging neckline she wore in the 1993 Country Music Awards during her performance of ‘Does He Love You’ with original duet partner Linda Davis.
‘Does He Love You,’ which was released in August of 1993, was a vocal battle between two female narrators who happened to be in love with the same man. They are both aware that the man is unfaithful to them and they’re wondering who the man truly loves between the two of them. Written by Sandy Knox and Billy Stritch, this song was Reba’s first single from her compilation album Greatest Hits Volume Two.
For You
The song quickly soared to No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart earning Reba and Davis a Grammys for Best Country Vocal Collaboration in 1994. They also took home a CMA for Vocal Event of the Year and TNN/Music City News Award for Best Vocal Collaboration.
Aside from Reba and Kelly’s performance, the song was also released as a duet by Minnelli with Donna Summer in Minnelli’s album Gently in 1996. A year after that, Patti LaBelle reinvented the song as an R&B ballad in her album Flame.
Other flashback performances that night were Blake Shelton and Toby Keith’s duet of Keith’s 1993 classic ‘Should’ve Been a Cowboy’ and Alan Jackson and Jon Pardi with Jackson’s hit song ‘Chattahoochee.’ All of these songs were celebrating their 25th anniversaries.
You can watch Reba and Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Does He Love You’ performance below.
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