Born Kelendria Trene Kamasia Rowland on February, 1981, Kelly experienced huge fame when performing as trio in Destiny’s Child with Beyonce Knowles and Michelle Williams (II). Even after the group have disbanded, Kelly continued to pursue career in music by going solo, kicked off nicely with the duet with rapper http://Nelly on “Dilemma”.
Kelly is the daughter of Doris Rowland Garrison and Christopher Lovett who resided in Atlanta, Georgia and got married only after she was born. Inspired by Whitney Houston in 1985, four-year-old Kelly began singing and joined church choir. However, her father was an abusive alcoholic which made her mother decide to leave him and take Kelly with her when Kelly was only seven. They moved to Houston, Texas where she was practically raised by the Knowles family.
Kelly became friends with Beyonce and formed a girl group with her and some other girls. Initially named Girl’s Tyme, the group was seized down to six members. Producer Arne Frager personally flew to Houston to meet them and brought them to his studio in Northern California. The group were debuted at talent show “Star Search” but they unfortunately lost.
Beyonce’s father Matthew Knowles resigned from his day job as salesman to devote his time as the group’s manager. Under his management, the girls were cut further down to four and scored a recording deal in later 1997 under new pseudonym, Destiny’s Child. Together with the group, Kelly went through golden years and received Grammy awards.
With success came a downside. LaToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson left the group after a series of lawsuits and the group were criticized for putting Beyonce on the spotlight. In 2002, Kelly tried her hand on solo career, teaming up with Nelly to sing the chorus of “Dilemma”. It was one of the most successful singles of the year, as proven by the golden gramophone that she shared with the rapper.
Due to the success of the duet, her solo album “Simply Deep” was pushed forward by three weeks that year. When it was dropped in October 2002, the album sold 77,000 copies on the first week and went on certified gold by RIAA. It was even more successful in international market with the worldwide sales of 2.5 million copies.
