KELLY ROWLAND
FULL NAME
Kelendria Trene Rowland
BORN
February 11, 1981
Atlanta, Georgia
ORIGIN
Houston, Texas
GENRE
R&B, Dance
LABEL
Universal Republic
CURRENT SINGLE
Dirty Laundry
TWITTER
Follow @KELLYROWLAND
5,137,070 + followers
FACEBOOK
3,098,733 + likes
WEBSITE
AWARDS
BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS
2012 Top R&B Song-
Motivation
CAPITAL FM AWARDS
2003 Favorite
International Single- Dilemma (with Nelly)
COSMOPOLITAN ULTIMATE
WOMEN OF THE YEAR AWARDS
2011 Ultimate TV
Personality- X Factor UK
DANISH DEEJAY AWARDS
2010 Best International
DeeJay Favorite- When Love Takes Over (with David Guetta)
GLAMOUR WOMEN OF THE YEAR
AWARDS
2012 TV Personality Of
The Year- X Factor UK
GRAMMY AWARDS
2003 Best Rap/Sung
Collaboration- Dilemma (with Nelly)
INTERNATIONAL DANCE MUSIC
AWARDS
2010 Best Pop Dance
Track- When Love Takes Over (with David Guetta)
SOUL TRAIN MUSIC AWARDS
2011 Song Of The Year-
Motivation
BIO
Making a record can often feel like getting ready for a big game.
It requires complete devotion from body, mind, and spirit as well
as a whole lot of time to get things right. During recording, blood, sweat, and
tears become committed to tape in preparation to go out and play. Every inch of
passion that can be mustered in the studio is codified for listeners to
relive—whether it’s via their headphones or in a packed arena. So, above all,
the music has to be real. Grammy Award-winning multiplatinum superstar Kelly
Rowland is at her most revealing on her fourth full-length solo album, Talk A
Good Game [Republic Records]. She’s also undoubtedly playing to win.
Once again, Rowland raises the bar this time around. The record
straddles the line between raw R&B and seductive pop with a healthy dose of
swaggering hip-hop thrown in for good measure. Always one to challenge the
status quo, the diva opened up the floodgates with the offering’s first single
“Kisses Down Low”. The smooth, sweaty, and sexed-up anthem proved to be a hit
at radio and online. Shortly after its premiere, the music video racked up over
9.9 million YouTube/VEVO views and remains the bedroom jam for 2013.
On the other end of the spectrum, she opens up like never before
on the tear-jerking ballad and second single “Dirty Laundry”. It’s a
confessional, yet catchy rumination on jealousy punctuated by raw heartbreak.
Given her tangible honesty, the track caught fire as soon as it went to
airwaves. She powerfully sings, “When you’re soaked in tears for years, it never
airs out. When you make pain look this good, it never wears out”.
Rowland also invited a bevy of high-profile friends to team up
with her for this album and production comes courtesy of The Runners, Pharrell
Williams, The-Dream, and more. As for the guests, Wiz Khalifa lights up a lithe
verse on “Gone”, and Pharrell Williams burns brightly alongside her on “Feet to
the Fire”. Pusha T adds true grit to the reggae bounce of “Street Life” as the
singer’s voice hits elegant heights. Then, there’s “Freak” which is a
deliciously dirty and danceable in all the right ways.
There’s also a history-making moment on the album. “You Changed”
reunites Rowland with her Destiny’s Child sisters Beyoncé and Michelle
Williams. Just before the three voices join in one more harmony, Rowland nods
to their shared legacy asking, “Ladies, ya’ll want to do it again?” You’ll want
to hear it again and again too.
For all of its boundary breaking and evolution, Talk A Good Game
upholds a tradition of quality for the singer and performer. It arrives hot on
the heels of her critically acclaimed chart-topping third offering, Here I Am.
That LP debuted at #3 on the Billboard Top 200, surpassing sales of 77,000
first week and spawning the platinum-selling smash “Motivation” featuring Lil
Wayne. Currently, the single’s YouTube/VEVO views exceed an impressive 59
million. Her fan base exponentially grows at a rapid rate. Twitter followers
exceed 5 million, Facebook likes surpassing 2.9 million, and Instagram
followers are over 1.1 million. That’s no surprise given the artist’s legendary
status though.
Rowland earned the title of “legend” too. She elevated pop
R&B to stratospheric heights as a member of Destiny’s Child, one of the
best-selling groups of all time. She’s been honored with five Grammy Awards, 16
Billboard Music Awards, 15 Soul Train Awards, 4 American Music Awards, 2 MTV
Video Music Awards, 1 BRIT Award, 1 BET Award, 1 NAACP Image Award, a Star on
the “Hollywood Walk of Fame”, and more. Moving over 20 million albums worldwide,
she reached multi-platinum superstar status in less than a decade. She’s
starred in numerous televisions shows and feature films including American
Dreams, Freddy Vs. Jason, The Seat Filler, The Fashion Show alongside style
icon Isaac Mizrahi, and as a judge on The X Factor UK.
Throughout her solo career, Rowland hasn’t stopped churning out
hits either. Her powerhouse vocals reverberated potently through Simply Deep
and Ms. Kelly. She’s also accrued a timeless catalog of her own songs including
the Grammy Award-winning “Dilemma” featuring Nelly, “Like This” featuring Eve,
“Stole”, “Breathe Gentle” featuring Tiziana Ferro, “When Love Takes Over”
featuring David Guetta, and more worldwide chart-dominating successes.
Although Kelly Rowland has a long list of accomplishments and
accolades under her belt, she shows no signs of slowing down. She’s not only
going to continue playing the game but winning.
“I’m very confident in everything that’s going on around me now,”
she says. “I’ve been in this business long enough to have a track record that
says I have something to contribute, but the key difference now is that I feel
more in control. It’s a great feeling.”- kellyrowland.com
