Born and raised in Harlem, Kelis went from singing in church choirs to becoming a well-known R&B singer/songwriter.  During her youth, Kelis played the violin, the piano, and the saxophone and sang in church choirs while attending Manhattan Country School.

Kelis

Am I R&B because I’m Black? Am I pop because I have a song called "Milkshake"? Or can I just be who the hell I am?

Born and raised in Harlem, Kelis went from singing in church choirs to becoming a well-known R&B singer/songwriter.  During her youth, Kelis played the violin, the piano, and the saxophone and sang in church choirs while attending Manhattan Country School.  At age sixteen Kelis left home to attend Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts.  During her time at this school Kelis created an R&B trio called Black Ladies United (BLU) and after graduation she continued her musical career by forming The Neptunes and landed a record deal.

In 1998 Kelis began recording her debut album, Kaleidoscope which debuted at number one hundred and forty-four on the Billboard 200 and sold almost 250,000 copies.  The lead single from this album, Caught out There, reached number nine on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and became a MTV/BET hit video.  Kaleidoscope gained even more fame in Europe where three singles from the album became hits and Kelis herself became known for her clothing style and attention-grabbing hairdo. 

Kelis’ next album, Wanderland, was released exclusively in Europe, Asia, and Latin America after Young, Fresh n’ New, the lead single from the album, failed to gain popularity in the United States.  After mediocre sales on her second album Kelis finally achieved success in the US with her third album, Tasty, released in 2003.  Milkshake, a single from this album was a Hot Dance Club Play number one and propelled the album to sell over 400,000 copies in the United States alone.  This album also earned her a Grammy Award nomination and has since gained gold status.  Her fourth album, Kelis Was Here did not sell as well as her previous album but its lead single, Bossy, was frequently played on urban radio and went platinum in December of 2006.

In 2008 Kelis released her greatest hits album titled The Hits which included fourteen tracks, all of her charted singles to date.  Her next album, Fleshtones is slated to be released in 2010 under Interscope Records and will include the dance song single Acapella produced by David Guetta.  Kelis is currently working on a cookbook and is designing her own line of fashion accessories called Cake.  The future may involve Kelis hosting a Project Runway-like show for VH1 though it is not certain which path Kelis will take in the future of her career.

Did you know…

- Kelis’ name is a Portmanteu of her father’s and mother’s names – it draws the first half from her father’s name, Kenneth, and the second half from her mother’s name, Eveliss
-  Kelis was detained by police in 2007 for disorderly conduct in Miami Beach, Florida but was released on a $1,500 bond
-  In 2005 Kelis married rapper Nas and filed for divorce four years later though she was seven months pregnant at the time; the baby boy, Knight was born on July 21, 2009

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