Profile of Kelly Rowland on Famous Like Me

Kelly Rowland (born Kelendria Trene Rowland February 11, 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an African American R&B, pop singer, actress, and member of the successful musical trio Destiny's Child.

Biography and career

Rowland lived with the family of fellow group member Beyoncé Knowles starting at age 10. She later rose to fame with the then quartet Destiny's Child in 1998 with the Billboard Top 10 hit, "No, No, No (Part 2)". Even after much publicized turmoil involving new and exiting group members, Destiny's Child (eventually a trio consisting of original members Rowland and Knowles, with Michelle Williams) managed to become one of the most successful pop/R&B acts in the late 90s/early 00's, earning four #1 Billboard 100 singles and a #1 album.

Destinys Child

Main article: Destinys Child

Kelly and Destiny's Child toured as an opening act for both Christina Aguilera and TLC before their 1998 platinum-selling self-titled debut album Destiny's Child was released. Their debut album was produced by Wyclef Jean and Jermaine Dupri and featured the platinum-selling, number one Hot 100 single "No, No, No". Destiny Child's second album The Writing's On The Wall, released in 1999, featured two number-one hits in "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Say My Name". "Bug-A-Boo" and "Jumpin' Jumpin'" were also popular singles from the album. "Say My Name" won two awards at the 2001 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best R&B Song, the latter of which was awarded to the songwriters, which included Kelly herself.

Their next album, Survivor, proved to be another smash, going to number one on both the American Billboard 200 and R&B Albums charts, as well as the Canadian album chart. Two singles from the album went to the top of the Hot 100: "Independent Women" (Part 1) and "Bootylicious", with the album's title track reaching number two. "Independent Women" (Part 1) had been the theme song for Charlie's Angels in late 2000, before the album's 2001 release. The title track "Survivor" would win the group their third Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The album's fourth and final single, "Emotions", was a cover of the Bee Gees hit of the same name; it continued the group's impressive string of top ten hits.

Over the course of the supergroup's seven albums, Rowland evolved from backing singer to joint lead singer of destiny's child. Rowland shared lead vocals with Beyonce Knowles on even the group's earliest hits such as "Independent Women" (pre-chorusx2)"With me" (second verse), "Get on the bus" (second verse)and "Bills Bills Bills" (pre-chorusx2), but her vocal talent was overlooked by some of the media as she was overshadowed by Beyonce Knowles, the group's most prominent lead singer and chief songwriter. Rowland's lead vocals as long with those of Michelle Williams were more prominent on the groups later albums.

Solo career

After the success of the trio's third album, Survivor, the three members separated to pursue solo endeavors. Rowland, in 2003, released her first solo album, the two million selling Simply Deep. The album, which went Gold in the US and debuted at #1 on the UK album chart, included "Dilemma", a duet with Nelly which spent ten weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (making Rowland the first Destiny's Child member to top the charts outside of the group) and won Rowland her first Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Rap/Sung collabration, she shared this award with Nelly. Rowland has won four Grammy Awards, three with Destiny's child and one as a solo artist. Additionally, she branched into acting with her role in the 2003 summer blockbuster, Freddy vs. Jason and in the 2005 independant film The Seat Filler.

Destiny Fulfilled

Following solo success, Rowland rejoined Knowles and Williams to release their fourth (and final) studio album, Destiny Fulfilled. The album hit #2 on the Billboard 200. Rowland and the other two-thirds of Destiny's Child embarked on a European and American tour sponsored by McDonald's titled, Destiny Fulfilled and Lovin' It, in 2005. Shortly before the end of the tour, the members of Destiny's Child announced their breakup.

Rowland is currently signed to a deal to endorse and appear in commercials for Dark & Lovely hair products of the Soft Sheen Carson product company.

Upcoming Projects

Rowland has some individual TV and music projects lined up.She is to appear in three upcoming episodes of US UPN sitcom "Girlfriends" in February 2006. She is featured on new album llumination by soul greats Earth, Wind & Fire. Their album was released September 20th. Kelly's singing can be heard on their party joint "This Is How I Feel", produced by Organized Noize, also featuring rapper Big Boi of OutKast and singer Sleepy Brown. She is also a featured artist on a song called "Here We Go Again", which impacted radio on September 13 and is already major gaining airplay looking set to achieve similar success to her duet with Nelly on the song "Dilemma". This is the second single from rapper Trina's new album Glamorest Life in stores October 4th and the video for this single was filmed in September and will impact the TV music channels in late October. Kelly has already began working on her second album, which is expected to be released in Spring 2006.

Solo Discography

Albums

• 2002 Simply Deep US Sales: 559,000, US Certification: Gold, #12 US; UK Certification: Platinum (for sales of +328,000), #1 Australia, #1 UK; Worldwide sales: 2 million

Singles/Videos

• 2002 "Dilemma" (feat. Nelly) #1 US (10 weeks), #1 UK (2 weeks), #1 Australia
• 2002 "Stole" #2 UK, #27 US, #1 Australia
• 2003 "Can't Nobody" #5 UK, #97 US, Top 5 Australia
• 2003 "Train on a Track" #20 UK (not released in US), Top 10 Australia
• 2005 "Here We Go" (Trina featuring Kelly Rowland) US #28

Group Discography

Rowland, like her bandmate Beyonce Knowles is a founding member of destiny's child and is featured on every destiny's child album, to see her sales and chart positions with destinys child, see Destiny's Child Discography

Solo Tours

• 2003 Simply Deeper European Tour

Flimography

• 2003 Freddy vs. Jason
• 2004 The Seat Filler

Endorsements

• Soft Sheen Carson

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Kelly Rowland