"A Moment Like This" is the first single, released as a double A-side with "Before Your Love", by Kelly Clarkson, the winner of the first season of American Idol, and later included on her multi-platinum debut album, Thankful. It has been covered by Leona Lewis, the third winner of the British television program The X Factor.

 

The single was co-written by Jörgen Elofsson and John Reid (of dance act Nightcrawlers) and produced by Stephen Ferrera and Steve Mac. It was written to be the first single for the winner of the first season of American Idol. As a result, the four remaining finalists, Kelly Clarkson, Justin Guarini, Nikki McKibbin, and Tamyra Gray each recorded a version of the song in case they won. The song was first revealed to the public when Guarini and Clarkson competed in a final showdown while singing this song, along with another track, "Before Your Love". After the American public had voted, Guarini performed the song (and Clarkson performed "Before Your Love") at the final show before the results were revealed. When Clarkson was announced as the winner, she became emotional, and sang the song as her final performance.

 

"Before Your Love", was also given to radio and had a video shot, which debuted on MTV's TRL before "A Moment like This" did; however, it failed to achieve the level of success of "A Moment like This". The single, to date, has sold approximately 1,000,200 copies.

 

The song is also used in television commercials for Sandals Resorts in the UK and United States.

 

The song is commonly played for the winning team at sporting events such as the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup, and World Series.

 

As the first single ever from American Idol, much pressure was put on "A Moment Like This" to perform well. The debut single from Will Young, the winner of Britain's Pop Idol (the forerunner to American Idol), sold 1.2 million copies in its first week, becoming the fastest-selling British debut single of all time; however, critics argued that the American singles market was different from the British market.

 

Kelly proved her critics wrong and the single became a smash hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks. Sales of the commercial single also helped the song (as evidenced by its number-one peak on the Hot 100 Singles Sales) break records. With the release of the single, the song broke The Beatles' record for the biggest leap ever to number one, from 52, in the history of the Hot 100 Chart, a record that would stand for five years, until Maroon 5's "Makes Me Wonder" jumped from 64 to 1 in May 2007.