Kelis

Kelis promoting 'Tasty'

Kelis (born Kelis Rogers, August 21, 1980) is an American singer and songwriter.

Biography

Kelis was born in the Harlem section of Manhattan, New York City. Her father, Kenneth, was a jazz musician and a Pentecostal minister; her mother, Eveliss, was a fashion designer. "Kelis" is a combination of her African American father's and Chinese/Puerto Rican mother's names. Kelis' name is pronounced 'Kuh-Leese'.

As a child, she sang in church choirs and played violin, piano, and saxophone while attending a private school. Kelis left home at age thirteen, but remained in school where she formed the R&B trio BLU (Black Ladies United). After graduation, she formed a band with the Neptunes and, with their support, landed herself a record deal.

Her debut album, Kaleidoscope, was, overall, not an American success selling only 290,000 copies to date; though its debut single, "Caught Out There", was a modest urban radio success and a MTV/BET video hit in America. However, the entire album really took off in Europe, where all three singles, "Caught Out There", "Good Stuff", and "Get Along With You", were sizable hits. The album, Wanderland, was released two years later exclusively in Europe and Asia, after its lead single, "Young Fresh 'N New", failed to catch on in America; the video for "Young Fresh 'N New" barely registered on American MTV or VH1, but got pretty heavy play on MTV2.

Kelis, who had moved to Europe during her successful period there, returned to America where she met and fell in love with rapper Nas. The couple were married on January 8, 2005. She has since worked with a variety of musicians including Busta Rhymes, Foxy Brown, Lil Kim, OutKast, P. Diddy, Usher, Moby, Richard X, Timo Maas, Björk and Enrique Iglesias.

Her most notable duets were popular singles and music videos, even in America, during 1999 and the early 2000s decade. These include the following: "Got Your Money" with Ol' Dirty Bastard, "What It Is" with Busta Rhymes, and "Candy" with Foxy Brown.

Kelis finally did find mainstream success in America in 2003, with her #1 urban, #3 Hot 100 song, "Milkshake"; this helped to propel her album Tasty to the top of the charts and reach gold status selling over 540,000 copies in the U.S in only 2 months. The single and album were similarly successful in Europe. The album's second single, "Trick Me", once again proved successful at radio and video channels in Europe during mid-2004, though the song did not enjoy success in America, where its music video was not even released. "Not In Love", Kelis & Enrique Iglesias' duet from Iglesias' album, was also released as a single in 2004 and failed to catch on in America outside of the club charts.

Kelis followed her success of 'Millionaire' with the Rockwilder produced track, 'In Public' featuring husband, Nas. The track was a UK only release, taking it to #17 with only airplay spins and no video for the track.

Kelis is set to hit the scene in early 2006 with "Bossy", feat. Too Short. The album also features the previously unreleased "Oasis", a hot duet with Gwen Stefani and a sequel to "Tasty"'s "In Public". The album, titled "4Play Puppeteer", aptly celebrating her fourth album, will be released shortly after the first single. Currently, In addition to working on the upcoming album, Kelis is writing a cookbook and designing her own line of fashion accessories.

Discography

Kaleidoscope (1999) #144 US
Wanderland (2001) (Released in Europe, Asia & Latin America only)
Tasty (2003) #27 US #11 UK (Gold)
4Play Puppeteer (2006)

Singles/Music Videos

1999

"Caught Out There" from "Kaleidoscope" #52 UK (2000 import release), #4 UK (2000 official release)
"Good Stuff" from "Kaleidoscope" #19 UK (2000 release)
"Got Your Money" from "Nigga Please"(Ol' Dirty Bastard feat. Kelis) #11 UK (2000 release)
"Get Along With You" from "Kaleidoscope" #51 UK

2000

"Honey" [remix] from "Honey (CD-Single)" (Moby featuring Kelis)*
"Supa Lova" from "Streetsoul" (Guru's Jazzmatazz feat. Kelis)
"How Many Licks" [remix] from "How Many Licks (CD-Single)" (Lil' Kim feat. N.E.R.D. & Kelis)*

2001

"Cross The Border" from "Get Down or Lay Down" (Philly's Most Wanted featuring Kelis)
"What It Is" from "Genesis"(Busta Rhymes featuring Kelis)
"Young, Fresh, 'N New" from "Wanderland" #32 UK
"Candy" from "Broken Silence" (Foxy Brown featuring Kelis)*

2002

"Popular Thug" from "The Neptunes Present... Clones"(feat. Nas)*
"When The Last Time" (Clipse featuring Kelis)
"Help Me" from "Loud" (Timo Maas featuring Kelis) #65 UK
"Take You Home" from "Animal House"(Angie Martinez featuring Kelis) #85 US

2003

"Milkshake" from "Tasty" #3 US, #2 UK
"How You Want That" (Loon featuring Kelis) #88 US
"Let's Get Ill" (P. Diddy featuring Kelis)* #25 UK
"Make This Run" from "Build & Destroy: The Lost Sessions, Pt.1"(Royce Da 5'9" featuring. Pharrell Williams and Kelis)*
"Finest Dreams" from "Richard X Presents His X Factor Volume One" (Richard X featuring Kelis) #8 UK

2004

"Not In Love" from "Not In Love (CD-Single)" (Enrique Iglesias featuring Kelis) #5 UK
"Trick Me" from "Tasty" #2 UK
"Millionaire" (featuring Andre 3000 of OutKast) from "Tasty" #3 UK
"Oceania" [remix] from "Oceania (CD-Single" (Björk featuring Kelis)

2005

"In Public (featuring Nas)" from "Tasty"* #17 UK

2006

"I'm Bossy" (Kelis featuring Too Short)*
"Island Letter" (featuring Tha Hybrid)*

Other Facts

Two different videos were filmed for "Milkshake". The first was never released. Once the song started to catch on, a sexier video for the song was filmed instead; this is the one that was finally released, but the first one remains viewable on Kelis' website.
Kelis sings on all of the above singles and appears in all music videos for those that have them, other than "Oceania". She also makes cameo appearances in the following Neptunes-related music videos, despite not actually singing on the track:
- "The Funeral" (Clipse) (1999)
- "Lap Dance" (N.E.R.D. featuring Lee Harvey & Vita) (2001)

* No music video exists for song/version of song

Other Songs/Collaborations