Auburn's Sam James debuts original song live on 'The Kelly Clarkson Show'

Craig S. Semon, Telegram & Gazette
·2 min read
Sam James performs his original single, "The First Time" for the very first-time live Tuesday on "The Kelly Clarkson Show."
Sam James performs his original single, "The First Time" for the very first-time live Tuesday on "The Kelly Clarkson Show."

A fixture of the Worcester music scene and former contestant on NBC's “The Voice,” Sam James played his new song “The First Time” for the first time live Tuesday on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”

Taped live last week in Los Angeles, “The Kelly Clarkson Show” episode with James aired at 3 p.m. Tuesday on NBC 10 Boston.

“The First Time” hit No. 4 on the iTunes singer/songwriter chart in the U.S., which is James’ highest Apple release to date.

“It’s doing really well,” James, 36, of Auburn, said. “It’s charting in the U.S. It’s charting in Canada. It’s starting to move, which is awesome.”

Before releasing “The First Time,” James tested out the waters on TikTok.

“I hit a million followers on TikTok a few months ago. So I got a pretty good base to test things out,” James said. “I put out a little snippet of ‘The First Time’ to see if people react to it. And it went really viral, 30 million views.

“Then we ended up putting a pre-save link out and it had 50,000 pre-saves before the song came out. So we kind of knew it was going to debut well.”

'A production'

James’ performance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” marks the first time he has performed “The First Time” live anywhere.

“Obviously, I’ve done TV in the past but this is so different. It was definitely way more of a production,” James said. “I was a little bit nervous. There’re a lot of moving pieces and people playing with me who are amazing. It’s a lot of big stage and a lot of lights and candles. It was a trip, man. It was really cool.”

Sam James performs his original single, "The First Time" for the very first-time live Tuesday on "The Kelly Clarkson Show."
Sam James performs his original single, "The First Time" for the very first-time live Tuesday on "The Kelly Clarkson Show."

Guitarist Pierre Aleksi, also a fixture in the Central Massachusetts music scene, played with James on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”

“The First Time” was released Jan. 20. There are two versions, a clean and an explicit version. On the show, James sings the clean version.

James first made a national splash on the third season of NBC's "The Voice" with his unique spin on the John Lennon classic "Imagine," which made Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine declare that James had a "fantastic voice."

James was also on the first episode of the short-lived songwriting competition series “Songland” on NBC. He performed his original song “Shinedown” in front of four celebrity judges — John Legend, Ryan Tedder, Ester Dean and Shane McAnally.

James is tentatively planning a tour at the end of March.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Auburn's Sam James to debut 'The First Time' on 'Kelly Clarkson Show'