Perhaps that’s because, even at what should have been the height of her career, you could tell - if you really took the time to look - that underneath the surface, she seemed to be kicking and thrashing, doing anything she could to stay afloat. Rowland has cultivated a legion of devoted fans - chief among them, me - who have always wanted to see her win. In many ways, the woman I have idolized for so long is a far cry from where she started 25 years ago. When Proposition 8 - a notoriously homophobic piece of legislation - was struck down in California, thus paving the way for marriage equality to become legal, Rowland took the stage at Los Angeles Pride to perform “When Love Takes Over.” She tells me she can still remember the chills that ran all over her body when she realized “the overwhelming sense of love” in the audience.
Her singles “When Love Takes Over” and “Commander” hit the 2000s gay club scene like a tab of ecstasy, with bass lines, piano melodies, and Rowland’s formidable, velvety mezzo-soprano reverberating throughout our glittering dance floors. In fact, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love her, stretching all the way back to the joy I felt when she finally got to sing the lead vocals on Destiny’s Child’s “Bootylicious.” When I moved to New York in 2009 with nothing but my virginity and a fake ID, Rowland was the soundtrack of my life. In case you can’t tell, I adore Kelly Rowland. Wrinkles, however, are not something that Rowland has ever heard of.īut I digress. If you are old enough to know what a Discman is, then you are also old enough to have wrinkles. She looks younger now than she did in 1999 on the cover art for The Writing’s on the Wall, which happened to be a CD I played incessantly in a device called a Discman.
She told me her secret is a retinol serum she “swears by,” but a quick Google search will reveal to you that Rowland is, scientifically speaking, aging backward. Reader, let me tell you something: Kelendria Rowland doesn’t have a single fucking pore on her face. “That means I am wearing more makeup than you right now,” I said, mouth agape, and the singer shrugged.
Kelly Rowland entered our Zoom call and announced that she was barefaced.