Kelendria Trene "Kelly" Rowland (born February 11, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. She rose to fame as one of the founding members of the American girl group Destiny's Child. She has sold around forty million albums and twenty million singles with the group, and more than four million solo albums and eighteen million solo/featured singles. In total she has sold 82 million records worldwide.
Rowland began her solo career in 2002 with the release of her debut album Simply Deep, which contained influences of alternative-R&B and rock music. It included her joint worldwide number-one single "Dilemma" with rapper Nelly, as well as subsequent singles "Stole", "Can't Nobody" and "Train on a Track". Following the group's disbandment in 2005, Rowland released her second solo album Ms. Kelly in 2007.
Considerably less successful than its predecessor, the album produced the hit singles "Like This" and "Work". In 2009, Rowland scored her second number-one hit with French DJ David Guetta on his single, "When Love Takes Over". The song resulted into their 2010 joint single "Commander". This was Rowland's third number-one hit on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart and first offering from her third album Here I Am. In 2011, Rowland's single "Motivation" featuring Lil Wayne reached number-one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts.
Apart from her work in music, Rowland has also launched a career in film and television. In 2002, she made her debut with guest stints on sitcom series such as The Hughleys and Taina, prior to appearing in the big-screen movies like the horror film Freddy vs. Jason (2003) and the romantic comedy The Seat Filler (2004).
In 2009, she served as the host of the first season of the Bravo competition series The Fashion Show alongside Isaac Mizrahi. In 2011, Rowland joined the judging panel on the eighth series of the British reality television competition The X Factor.
Kelendria Trene Kamasia Rowland was born in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the daughter of Doris Rowland Garrison and Christopher Lovett. When she was seven, her mother took her and left her father, who was an abusive alcoholic. At the age of eight, she relocated to Houston. Rowland was placed into a rapping and dancing group, along with friends Beyoncé Knowles and LaTavia Roberson. Originally named Girl's Tyme, they were eventually cut down to six members.
West coast R&B producer, Arne Frager, flew into Houston to see them and eventually brought them to his studio, The Plant Recording Studio, in Northern California. As part of efforts to sign Girl's Tyme to a major label record deal, Frager's strategy was to debut them in Star Search, the biggest talent show on national TV at that time. They participated, but lost the competition.
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