Kelly Rowland's Support For Chris Brown Amid His 2022 AMAs Win Has Twitter Buzzing
Pink opened up the 2022 American Music Awards with a performance of "Never Gonna Not Dance Again," per Rolling Stone, where she flaunted stellar vocals and her roller skating skills. Then host Wayne Brady dove into a lively musical number where he combined rapping and singing and brought out his "Dancing With the Stars" partner, Witney Carson. Of course, award shows aren't just about the performances; they're obviously about the awards, too. Machine Gun Kelly, for example, took home the award for best rock artist. Meanwhile, Dove Cameron won the award for artist of the year, and used part of her speech to honor the victims of the recent Club Q mass shooting in Colorado.
Meanwhile, Chris Brown won the award for favorite male R&B artist. However, presenter Kelly Rowland announced that Brown, whose AMAs performance was unexpectedly canceled by ABC, was not in attendance. Brown's name triggered boos from the crown, which Rowland promptly shut down.
Kelly Rowland's support for Chris Brown has fans divided
Kelly Rowland was not here for the way the AMAs crowd reacted to Chris Brown's win. Rowland raised a stern finger and said, "Excuse me, chill out" (via Deadline). Turning to the camera, Rowland continued, "But I want to tell Chris, thank you so much for making great R&B music. And I wanna tell him, thank you for being an incredible performer. I'll take this award, bring it to you. I love you, congratulations." Immediately, viewers took to Twitter to express their opinions, and it seems that Rowland's stance has caused a great divide.
Journalist Miranda J. wrote in a since-deleted tweet, "Kelly Rowland's message to Chris Brown was EVERYTHING!" One of Brown's supporters exclaimed, "Kelly Rowland said PUT SOME RESPECT ON Chris Brown's name! #AMAs." Meanwhile, another fan wrote, "Thank you Kelly Rowland for that genuine love you just showed Chris Brown for winning."
Of course, not everyone agreed with Rowland's support of Brown. "Ok @KELLYROWLAND don't forget @chrisbrown beat @rihanna. Calm down on glorifying," tweeted one user who referenced Brown's past abusive relationship with Rihanna. One fan spoke out against both Brown and Rowland, tweeting "What the f*** is Chris brown doing still winning awards and why is Kelly Rowland up there thanking his a** wtf truly." And finally (though this is the very tip of the iceberg), one user's tweet hit Rowland below the belt: "This is why we like Beyoncé better."
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