Kelly Rowland Doubled Down On Defending Chris Brown After His AMAs Win
“I believe that grace is very real, and we all need a dose of it.”
Kelly Rowland is standing behind her public support for Chris Brown after defending him on the American Music Awards stage. On Nov. 20, Rowland presented Brown with the award for Favorite Male R&B Artist at the AMAs and accepted the award on his behalf as he wasn’t in attendance. Many on social media made it clear they weren’t here for her defense of Brown, who has faced accusations of abuse and assault over the years.
While Brown has not directly commented on some lawsuits and various charges have been dropped, according to Vulture, he pled guilty to felony assault of Rihanna, his ex-girlfriend, in 2009. In 2017, Karrueche Tran, another ex-girlfriend, was granted a restraining order against Brown.
Despite the backlash for her AMAs speech, Rowlands reiterated her support of Brown to TMZ. On Nov. 22, a TMZ videographer asked Rowland, who was walking to her car in West Hollywood, her thoughts on the “bullying” Brown received for his win.
“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 we get,” Rowland said. “Even our own things that we have, I just think it’s important to remember to be human. We are humans.”
When asked if she believed Brown should be forgiven for his controversial actions, Rowland’s empathetic stance didn’t waver.
“We all need to be forgiven for anything that we could be doing [and] anything that we’re thinking. We all come up short in some sort of way. And grace is real, and we are humans, and everybody deserves grace, period,” she said.
In the brief video, Rowland didn’t elaborate on her remarks made on the AMAs stage. During the show, the Destiny’s Child alum revealed that Brown won Favorite Male R&B Artist. This caused the crowd to notably reacted with mixed applause and boos. Rowland then raised a finger to shush the crowd before praising Brown for his talent.
“Excuse me, chill out,” Rowland said, revealing she would accept the award on his behalf since he wasn’t in attendance. “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. I’ll take this award [and] bring it to you. I love you. Congratulations. And congratulations to all the nominees in this category.”
It’s not clear why Brown skipped the ceremony; however, it’s possible he wasn’t in attendance due to his tribute performance to Michael Jackson that was reportedly pulled from the show. According to Entertainment Tonight, Dick Clark Productions — the company behind the AMAs — clarified the performance was axed due to “creative direction.”
Following the AMAs, two of Brown’s previous musical collaborators publicly supported the singer. Similar to Rowland, Jordin Sparks told TMZ she believes he deserved the AMAs win. Sparks and Brown released their duet “No Air” in 2008.
Meanwhile, Ciara described Brown as a “rare breed of this generation” in an Instagram post on Nov. 21 that featured a video of her and Brown practicing Michael Jackson’s choreography. Entertainment Tonight also reported that Ciara was set to perform with Brown in the axed AMAs tribute.
Ciara did not mention Brown’s AMAs win or Rowland’s speech in her post.
