Kelis Rogers (; born August 21, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and chef. She attended Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she played saxophone and was selected for the Girls Choir of Harlem. Upon graduation, Rogers landed a role as a backing vocalist for the hip hop group Gravediggaz. She then began working with music producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo—collectively known as the Neptunes—who led her to sign with Virgin Records in 1998. The following year, she guest appeared on Ol' Dirty Bastard's Neptunes-produced single "Got Your Money", which marked her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100.
Rogers' debut studio album, Kaleidoscope (1999), was inspired by jazz and disco music from the 1970s. Despite critical acclaim, the album was met with domestic commercial failure; it instead found moderate success on international charts. Led by her first Billboard Hot 100 entry as a lead artist, "Caught Out There", the album peaked at number 43 on the UK Albums Chart and earned gold certification by the country's British Phonographic Industry (BPI). She parted ways with Virgin Records after her second album, Wanderland (2001) also received poor sales—not seeing a domestic release until 2019. After signing with the Neptunes' Star Trak Entertainment, Rogers third studio album, Tasty (2003), served as her commercial breakthrough and was met with continued critical praise. Its lead single, "Milkshake", peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100; the song and its follow-up, "Trick Me", both peaked at number two on the UK singles chart. Her fourth album, Kelis Was Here (2006), was supported by the US top 20 single "Bossy" (featuring Too Short), and peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200. Following its release, she took a hiatus from recording and ventured into culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu.
She later signed with will.i.am Music Group to release her fifth album, Flesh Tone (2010), which explored electronic music. Two of its singles, "Acapella" and "4th of July (Fireworks)" found success on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart and the UK Dance Singles Chart. Tying-in with her culinary career, she released her sixth studio album Food (2014), which became her second top-20 album in the UK and spawned three singles: "Jerk Ribs", "Rumble" and "Friday Fish Fry". The album explored a neo soul recording style.
Rogers has been recognized at the Brit Awards, Q Awards, NME Awards, and .Kate Hutchinson, 'Soul Food' , The T Ghide, March 1, 2014. Her musical output as a lead and featured artist encompasses various genres. She has collaborated with R&B and hip hop acts including Nas (whom she married in 2003), Busta Rhymes, Outkast, and Sean Combs; electronic and dance producers such as Calvin Harris, Disclosure, Giorgio Moroder, Timo Maas, and Richard X; pop and rock acts Enrique Iglesias, Duran Duran, and No Doubt; and indie and alternative musicians including Björk and Dave Sitek. She has sold six million records worldwide and has had particular success in the United Kingdom, where ten of her singles have peaked within the top ten of the UK Singles Chart.
As a child, Rogers sang in church choirs and played violin, piano, and saxophone while attending Manhattan Country School, a private school. At 13, she shaved off all of her hair. In an interview, Rogers says she was kicked out of her parents' house at 16 for bad behavior, stating that she would sometimes clash with her mother, but continued her education at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she formed the R&B trio BLU (Black Ladies United). She was also a bartender and a sales associate at a clothing store before graduating high school.
Kelis began recording her debut album Kaleidoscope in mid-1998 and was finished within a year. Produced by The Neptunes and released by Virgin Records in 1999, Kaleidoscope peaked at number 144 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and reached the top five on the Top Heatseekers chart. As of 2006, the album has sold 249,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its lead and most notable single "Caught Out There" became a top 10 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs hit and peaked at number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100. During this time, Kelis featured on Ol' Dirty Bastard's U.S. top 40 single "Got Your Money".
The album performed better in Europe, where "Caught Out There" was a moderate hit in most European countries except the United Kingdom, where the song saw massive success, peaking at number four on the UK Singles Chart. The single "Good Stuff" (featuring Pusha T of Clipse) reached number 19; another single "Get Along with You" was less successful, reaching number 51. The British Phonographic Industry certified Kaleidoscope gold for sales of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, where it reached number 43 on the UK Albums Chart.
In 2001, Kelis won the Brit Awards for International Breakthrough Act and the NME Awards for Best R&B/Soul Act, then joined Moby and U2 on the and Elevation Tour tours, respectively. Kelis and the Neptunes' output at this time was heralded as foreshadowing an innovation in contemporary R&B, but she later said "I was never an R&B artist. People coined me one but that's because, especially if you're in the States, if you're black and you sing, then you're R&B". Her colorful style in both clothing and hair received considerable attention.
Kelis's second album Wanderland was released in 2001 in Europe, Asia, and Latin America but did not receive a North American release until 2019. According to Kelis, Virgin Records, her U.S. record company at the time, had laid off those that worked on Kaleidoscope; their replacements did not understand or believe in Wanderland. Eventually, Kelis was dropped from Virgin around the time of the album's European release, but she remained on the label's roster in Europe. A commercial failure, Wanderland peaked at number 78 in the UK; its only single "Young, Fresh n' New" managed to crack the top 40 on the UK Singles Chart. The album, which was produced in its entirety by the Neptunes and features collaborations with members of Clipse and No Doubt, received a subdued critical response. NME wrote: "In our collective fantasies, Kelis Rogers is already the ghetto-fabulous sex-queen of discodelic future-funk pop-rock-soul...But beyond the initial shopping-and-funking dazzle, there is way too much filler here for a hotly hyped alterna-soul princess with her eyes on the big prize". The Fader later referred to Wanderland as "Kelis's long lost masterpiece".
In 2002, Kelis recorded "So Be It" for the Red Hot Organization's Fela Kuti tribute CD Red Hot and Riot, from which all proceeds were donated to AIDS-awareness charities. The same year, she had a top 20 U.S. club hit with a remix of "Young, Fresh 'n' New", produced by Timo Maas, who featured Kelis on his single "Help Me". She hosted the DanceStar USA Awards ceremony at that year's Winter Music Conference.
Although the Neptunes contributed several tracks to Tasty—the album was released by their label Star Trak Entertainment, a joint venture with Arista Records—Kelis also collaborated with other producers such as Dallas Austin, André 3000, Rockwilder, and Raphael Saadiq. She stated in an interview: "I felt like I had a lot to prove with this album. People had started messing with me along the lines of 'Is she REALLY any good without The Neptunes?' — which I knew was ridiculous. And so I was like 'I'll take that challenge'." The album was well-received critically; Entertainment Weekly wrote that Tasty is "Kelis' past—big beats, out-there imagery, and sex appeal—refined...much of the beauty of Tasty is in witnessing Kelis rise to the challenge of working with multiple imaginative maestros."
"Milkshake" and Tasty immediately found success in Europe. According to the BPI, Tasty went platinum in the United Kingdom, selling over 300,000 copies, and "Milkshake" went silver, selling over 200,000 units. The Dallas Austin-produced "Trick Me", the album's second single, went to the top 10 in many European countries during mid-2004; it did not, however, garner success in the U.S. in the absence of promotion by Jive Records, the label Kelis had been transferred to after Arista Records folded at the time of Tastys release. Kelis' success grew in Australia, where Tasty went gold and where "Milkshake" and "Trick Me" went platinum. Kelis followed the success of the third Tasty single, the BPI silver-certified "Millionaire" (featuring André 3000), with the Rockwilder-produced track "In Public" (featuring Nas), which reached number 17 on the UK chart.
"Not in Love", Kelis's collaboration with Enrique Iglesias from his 2003 album 7, was released as a single the following year, reaching the UK top five. Although the single failed to chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, it topped the country's Hot Dance Club Play chart. Also in 2004, Kelis collaborated with Björk on a remix of the latter's track "Oceania" (from Björk's album Medúlla), which appeared as a B-side to the single "Who Is It". Kelis toured as the opening act for fellow Jive artist Britney Spears's The Onyx Hotel Tour, then headlined her own tour of Australia and New Zealand. In 2005, she was featured on the soundtrack to the film Just Like Heaven with a cover version of The Pretenders' "Brass in Pocket".
Kelis Was Here was released in 2006, and it debuted and peaked at number 10 on the Billboard 200. Despite the career-high debut, the album has sold only 157,000 copies in the United States as of 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In the UK, Kelis Was Here charted at number 41 and has sold 60,000 copies, earning a silver certification from the BPI. The album was Kelis's first not to feature contributions from The Neptunes, as she had left Star Trak by this time; instead, she recorded with Cee-Lo Green, Max Martin, Raphael Saadiq, Scott Storch, and will.i.am.
According to Kelis, she received no support from Jive Records for the recording or promotion of Kelis Was Here and argued heavily with the label, later describing the period as "not the most creative atmosphere" and "the only time where I felt like I was being pulled in different directions. There were too many cooks in the kitchen". MTV characterised critical consensus of the album as "intriguingly intelligent, if unjustifiably disjointed and long" and wrote in 2016 that "it remains her most creatively anarchic project". Kelis Was Here was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 2007 Grammy Awards.
"Bossy" (featuring Too Short), the lead single from Kelis Was Here, was a moderate hit in the U.S., peaking at number 16; it additionally went multi-platinum as a mobile phone ringtone, according to the RIAA. The single "Blindfold Me" (featuring Nas) reached number 91 on the R&B chart and did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Kelis's European label, Virgin, instead released the Cee-Lo-featuring "Lil Star", which was another top 10 hit for Kelis in the United Kingdom (peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart). During mid 2007, Kelis toured in Europe, appearing in numerous festivals across the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, such as Wireless, Rise Festival and Gurtenfestival. Ford chose Kelis to help advertise the 2007 Ford Edge, and she recorded a theme song for the commercial, titled "Push It to the Edge", with help from producer Scott Storch.
Jive Records dropped Kelis in late 2007. Her manager at the time said that the singer was working with Cee-Lo Green on an alternative dance album and would be shopping a pop album produced by songwriter Guy Chambers. Scottish electronica producer Calvin Harris was said to be collaborating with her. Kelis took a hiatus from music: "I was like 'I will never put out another record again, I hate this business, I hate all these people.' I was in this race that I didn't even realise that I was in. I woke up and ten years had passed. That was never my plan".
After Kelis left Jive, the label released a 14-track greatest hits album titled The Hits in 2008. The album does not contain any previously unreleased songs; Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Got Your Money", N.E.R.D's "Truth or Dare", and Richard X's "Finest Dreams" appear on the album with every charted Kelis single to that date, with the exception of "Blindfold Me". Also in 2008, the Kelis Was Here album track "I Don't Think So" became a top 40 hit in Australia after being used in promotion for the 2008 season of the reality series Big Brother Australia.
Critical reception to Flesh Tone was generally positive, with Pitchfork naming the album Kelis's best since her debut Kaleidoscope. "Acapella" (produced by David Guetta), the first single from Flesh Tone, debuted in the top five on the UK Singles Chart and reached number one on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Songs and the UK Dance Chart, eventually receiving a BPI silver certification. Flesh Tone peaked at number 48 on the Billboard 200 and at number five on the Dance/Electronic Albums. The single "4th of July (Fireworks)" was accompanied by a video co-directed by Kelis (with Rankin and Nicole Ehrlich) and became a top 10 club hit in America and Britain. The singles "Scream" and "Brave" made minimal chart impact.
During mid-2010, Kelis embarked on her first U.S. tour, titled All Hearts with Robyn, amid a selection of club, festival, and solo dates that continued through 2011 – these included Glastonbury, The Big Chill, Good Vibrations Festival, and Lovebox Festival. Kelis appears on the Mark Ronson-produced track "The Man Who Stole a Leopard" from the 2010 Duran Duran album All You Need Is Now, a song she and the band performed in a concert directed by filmmaker David Lynch. She co-wrote the song "Waiting" for British pop singer Cheryl Cole's Messy Little Raindrops. Kelis then collaborated with Calvin Harris on the 2011 single "Bounce", the lead single from Harris' album 18 Months. "Bounce" debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Kelis's tenth UK top 10 single and her biggest selling in the country (as of 2017). It eventually received a platinum certification from the BPI.
By 2013, Kelis was working with producer Dave Sitek, and it was announced that she would release two albums via Sitek's label Federal Prism. The single "Jerk Ribs" premiered online. Kelis then signed to British independent label Ninja Tune for the release of the album Food in 2014. Produced entirely by Sitek, Food entered the UK Albums Chart at number 20, becoming Kelis' second highest-peaking album after Tasty in 2004. In the U.S., it reached number 73 on the Billboard 200 and the top 20 on the Independent Albums. Subsequent singles were "Rumble" (a top 40 hit on the UK Independent Singles Chart) and "Friday Fish Fry". Food received positive reviews from critics, including a five-star review in The Independent: "Kelis's sixth album is a moveable feast...If music be the food of love, Kelis has cooked up something tasty enough to satisfy all but the hungriest of hearts." Mic named Food the best album of 2014 and of Kelis's career, and Rolling Stone listed it as one of the year's best R&B albums.
A limited edition version of Food included remixes by electronic producers such as Actress, Mount Kimbie, Ben Pearce, Ben Westbeech, Machinedrum, and Will Saul. Breach reworked his remix of "Rumble" into "The Key", a track featuring Kelis, released as a single later in 2014. Kelis' performance at London's Somerset House was recorded and released as the album Live in London in late 2014. In 2015, Kelis featured on veteran disco producer Giorgio Moroder's album Déjà Vu, singing on the track "Back and Forth". In 2017, she was featured with rapper Sage The Gemini on English house DJ TCTS' single "Do It Like Me (Icy Feet)" and on Dan Black's single "Farewell". Also in 2017, she released the song "Who's Lovin' You" (originally sung by The Miracles), on the Danger Mouse-produced compilation Resistance Radio: The Man in The High Castle for the television show The Man in the High Castle.
Kelis revealed to i-D magazine in 2019 that she was working on an EP that, at the time of the interview, was intended for release in 2020; in 2021, she said an album, Dirt, would be released in 2022. Kelis released the single "Midnight Snacks" in 2021 and "Feed Them" in 2022, the latter in collaboration with the meal delivery service Daily Harvest.
An interpolation of Kelis's "Milkshake" was used in the Beyoncé song "Energy" on her 2022 album Renaissance. The song was updated on some streaming services to remove the interpolation after Kelis said that she was not notified nor asked for approval for the song's use. Kelis said that Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes, the credited songwriters on "Milkshake", had "stolen" and "swindled" her publishing rights for the song.
In February 2023, Kelis appeared on a commercial to advertise that year's Super Bowl; the commercial also featured Sean Combs, Montell Jordan and Donna Lewis, among others. In March 2023, Kelis announced she would be performing on the West Holts stage at that year's Glastonbury Festival. That same month, she announced tour dates for a European-only tour. On June 3, 2023, Kelis performed at the Mighty Hoopla music festival in London. On September 12, 2023, Kelis released "Milkshake 20" (Alex Wann Remix), which she co-produced.
In March 2014, Kelis set up a food truck to cook for attendees of the American music festival SXSW. She promoted her 2014 album Food by sharing her recipes for apple farro, jerk ribs, New York vanilla bean cheesecake, and more on the Spotify app Supper. That same year, the Cooking Channel aired a cooking television series starring Kelis, titled Saucy and Sweet. In 2016, Kelis and cooking duo Le Bun opened a pop-up restaurant in London that she adapted as a food truck to tour around UK music festivals. In September 2017, she released a milkshake recipe in collaboration with Baileys. In 2019, Kelis developed an exclusive menu with a local street food vendor for Jam on Rye Festival in London. She also appears in Cooked with Cannabis, a competition cooking series that Netflix launched on April 20, 2020.
In 2017, Kelis joined BBC One's singing contest Pitch Battle as a judge of the competition with Gareth Malone. In 2020, Kelis competed as the Daisy in the British version of The Masked Singer, where she was eliminated in the fifth episode. The Masked Singer (UK) Kelis by Charlotte McIntyre, Daily Express, January 28, 2020.
In March 2007, Kelis was detained by police in Miami Beach, Florida and charged with disorderly conduct. The arrest report said an operation in which officers posed as prostitutes in the South Beach nightclub district was disrupted when Kelis screamed racial profanities at them. She was sent to Miami-Dade County Jail and later released on a $1,500 bond. In September 2008, Kelis was acquitted. A spokesman for Kelis commented that she would file a lawsuit claiming unlawful arrest and the violation of her civil rights.
Kelis married photographer Mike Mora in 2014, and gave birth to her second son in November 2015. Beginning in January 2020, Kelis lived on and managed a remote farm outside Los Angeles. In September 2020, she gave birth to a daughter. In September 2021, Mora announced that he had stage IV stomach cancer. In an Instagram post, he stated he had been diagnosed with advanced gastric adenocarcinoma in September 2020 and given eighteen months to live. Mora died on March 14, 2022, at age 37.
In 2024, Kelis moved to Kenya, where she lives on a farm with her children.
Kelis's debut album Kaleidoscope took influence from a variety of 1970s genres, which included urban music, rock, jazz, hip hop, R&B, soul music, and disco music. Kelis cited early Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington as major influences for the album. Several of the album's tracks were designed for clubs, and contained electro beats meant for dancing. Her second studio album Wanderland resembles musically its predecessor while exploring more modern funk sounds, dabbling heavily into genres such as soul music and Rapping. It carried on the same themes developed in Kaleidoscope, and was criticized for doing so.
Food (2014) contains influences of soul, funk, gospel music, and Afrobeat—Kelis said of the album "You know, those records in your life that your parents played and they resonate with who you are? They make you nostalgic. I wanted to find out how to get that feeling."
Supporting act
2003–2005: Tasty
2006–2008: Kelis Was Here
2009–2011: Flesh Tone
2012–2017: Food
2018–present: Kaleidoscope anniversary tour and new music
Other ventures
Culinary
Fashion/TV
Personal life
Artistry
Discography
Tours
Filmography
+ List of television and films credits MTV dub TV movie "Drew Barrymore/Kelis" (Season 29, Episode 12) Reality television/Executive producer TV movie Direct-to-Video documentary "Everything Old Is New Again" (Season 3, Episode 2) Guest judge Short film Cooking special "12 Chef's Compete" (Season 13, Episode 7) Cooking special Judge Contestant, UK version Host/Judge Guest star
External links
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