Kelly Rowland Doubles Down On Her Support Of Chris Brown
Singer Kelly Rowland rose to fame as a member of the iconic girl group Destiny's Child and has continued to enjoy a career on the entertainment scene as a solo artist and talent competition judge, among other endeavors. While the "Like This" hitmaker remains a high-profile star for all of the above, in November 2022, she made headlines for something else.
On November 20, 2022, Rowland attended the American Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles and wowed in a cheetah print ensemble while sporting a short black bob and long leather gloves on the red carpet (via the Daily Mail). At the award show, she presented the award for Favorite Male R&B Artist, which was won by Chris Brown, who was not in attendance. After announcing his name with pride, the crowd gave a mixed reaction. While some were heard cheering, there was also some clear booing going on.
Per BBC, Rowland was quick to tell the audience to "chill out" and continued with, "I wanted to tell Chris, thank you so much for making great R&B music and I want to tell him thank you for being an incredible performer." Rowland's response was also met with a mixed reaction, and she has since spoken publicly about her decision to defend Brown.
Kelly Rowland believes Chris Brown deserves grace and forgiveness
Kelly Rowland's speech at the American Music Awards in support of Chris Brown certainly got people talking. While Brown has a lot of supporters, there are also people who are not in his favor due to his rocky past. "Kelly Rowland is a clown for defending Chris Brown when he wouldn't even let dark skinned women that look like her in his section @ the club," one user tweeted. "Kelly Rowland asking the crowd not to boo Chris Brown is very weird behavior," another person wrote.
Following the backlash, the "Say My Name" singer spoke to TMZ about why she supports Brown and believes others should forgive him. "I believe that grace is very real, and we all need a dose of it. And before we point fingers at anybody, we should realize how grateful we are, for every moment that we get," she told the outlet. Rowland continued, "We all need to be forgiven for anything we could be doing, anything that we're thinking. We all come up short in some sort of way."
As of this writing, Brown has yet to publicly respond to acknowledge Rowland coming to his defense.