“Because of You” is a ballad song by American pop rock singer-songwriter and actress, Kelly Clarkson. She rose to fame after winning the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and would later become the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003. The song was also written by Clarkson with David Hodges and Ben Moody, and produced by Hodges and Moody, both formerly of Evanescence. It is the fourth single (third in Europe) from Clarkson’s second album, Breakaway (2004). In 2007, Clarkson reprised the song in a duet with country music artist Reba McEntire for her album Reba: Duets. When MCA Nashville released the duet in the summer of 2007, its popularity produced Clarkson’s very first appearance on the Billboard Hot Country charts, where it reached a peak of #2. “Because of You” had become the song second most played over all of the last five years on television, radio, the internet, and live venues combined, in the UK, by the summer of 2008. On January 31, 2008, the RIAA certified the single platinum, with over 1,500,000 singles in all formats sold in the US. As of 2009, it is the biggest single from an American Idol album, with sales of seven million singles worldwide. In December 2009, Billboard ranked it as the 7th most successful pop song of the decade.