Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" Runs Through Netflix's Horror Series The Body
Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" is the ringtone of a lead character in Netflix's young-adult horror series The Body, and the song returns in two episodes. The detail comes from a song list that Deadline published on 11 November 2026.
The series is set in 2004, on Halloween night and the days after. It follows the St. Bart's Lions, a high school dance team whose Halloween pranks lead to serious consequences and mass hysteria, as members start having visions. Young-adult, or YA, means the show is aimed mainly at teenagers and younger adults.
Quinn Shephard created the series. She also directs it, executive produces it and co-showruns it with Gina Gammell through their company Felix Culpa. Co-showrunning means sharing the day-to-day running of a series, including its writing and production.
The cast includes Kristina Bogic, Geena Meszaros, Sara Boustany, Jackson Kelly, Sofia Wylie, Shirley Chen, Louisa Krause and Nnamdi Asomugha. Wylie plays Grace, whose phone plays "Breakaway" when it rings.
The soundtrack leans on early-2000s pop. It ranges from No Doubt to Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue, and it also includes Catholic hymns. Many of these are needle drops, the term for existing recordings played inside a scene rather than written for the show.
By episode, "Breakaway" appears in episode 102, "Jesus, Literally", and again in episode 103, "Unholy Thoughts". Britney Spears's "Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" plays in episode 108, "Coming Out". Kylie Minogue's "Confide in Me" is in episode 106, "Star Quality".
For anyone who was a teenager in 2004, the list reads like a playlist from that year. The show places its story in that moment, and the music helps set the time. The songs sit alongside the hymns, which gives the soundtrack a mix of pop and sacred music that matches the series' Catholic-school setting.
