Life and Music Career
Kelly Cherelle Price was born in Queens, New York. She began singing in church as a toddler. Her first professional engagement was with George Michael at Madison Square Garden in January 1992. As destiny would have it Price was over heard singing by Mariah Carey who after arriving to her own rehearsal late for the Grammys walked into a room where Price was singing in the rehearsal hall while everyone else was on a meal break. Carey subsequently introduced Price to Sony Columbia's then CEO Tommy Mottola. She made a name for herself as a backing and guest vocalist, appearing on a number of hit singles such as Mariah Carey's "Fantasy", The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Mo Money Mo Problems", and Whitney Houston's "Heartbreak Hotel". She has also sung background vocals for Faith Evans, Aretha Franklin, Brian McKnight, SWV and R. Kelly.
Prior to becoming a recording artist Price's career as a writer flourished. She collaborated and performed with and for well-known artists such as Brian McKnight, Faith Evans, The Notorious BIG, Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Mase, Faith Evans, Mic Geronimo, Da Brat, Jermaine Dupree, SWV, Aretha Franklin, LL Cool J, Wynona Judd, Mariah Carey, Ronald Isley, The Isley Brothers, Angela Winbush, Karen Clark Sheard, Yolanda Adams, Whitney Houston, Dallas Austin, MC Lyte, The Lox, ScarFace, Will Downing, Mary J. Blige, Gerald Levert, JOE, Angelique Kidjo, Coco Lee, KeKe Wyatt, Tamia, R. Kelly and Elton John.
Price issued her debut album, Soul of a Woman, in 1998 on Island Records, which contained the hit single "Friend of Mine". A remix of the song, also included on the album, features R. Kelly and Ronald Isley. In the remix, Isley takes on the fictional role of the singer-protagonist's Godfather ("Mr. Biggs"), taking her husband (R. Kelly) to task for cheating on her with her best friend. The "Friend of Mine" LP version and the remix both charted as #1 hits on the U.S. R&B chart and made history by doing so with no music video to support the song.
She issued her second album, Mirror Mirror, in 2000 on the Def Soul imprint of Def Jam Records; Island and Def Jam had merged in 1999, with Price and labelmates Dru Hill being reassigned to Def Soul. Mirror Mirror featured the singles "You Should've Told Me" and the Grammy Award nominated "As We Lay", a cover of Shirley Murdock's 1986 hit. A remix of "Love Sets You Free" was issued a single in 2000, produced by Teddy Riley and starring a number of fellow R&B performers, including Babyface, Tamar Braxton, Aaron Hall, Blackstreet, and Def Soul labelmates Dru Hill, Case, Montell Jordan, LovHer and Kandice Love.
Price was featured in the 2003 film, Bringing Down the House, performing a cover of the 1983 Rufus & Chaka Khan hit "Ain't Nobody."
A Christmas album, One Family, was issued in 2001 which had a piano appearance from GospelJazz pioneer, Ben Tankard. Two years later, Price returned with her third regular studio album, Priceless. In October 2005, Price recorded her first live gospel project. The This Is Who I Am album has been released on October 24, 2006 on her own label, EcclecticSounds Records. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard Gospel Charts and peaked at #9 on the R&B album chart.
Price was inducted as an honorary member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority in July 2006.
In early 2007, Price kicked off a tour with the 'Sisters in the Spirit 2007'.
In 2006, she recorded the song "Why?" for the soundtrack Why Did I Get Married?, the film version of the stage play of the same name where Price birthed the role of Sheila along side Hollywood mogul Tyler Perry who used the song titles and lyrical content of Price's hit recordings to develop the story.
In early 2009, Price was featured on Coko's gospel album entitled The Winner In Me on the track "Oh Mary".
In June 2010, Price promoted her single "Tired" on The Jazz Joy and Roy syndicated radio show as "some of the best work of my career to date." The song was also featured in Tyler Perrys 2011 film Madea's Big Happy Family
On February 9, 2012, in a pre-Grammy party to celebrate Price's nominations, the singer sang "Jesus Loves Me" with Whitney Houston in what turned out to be Houston's last public performance two days prior to her untimely death.
Read more about this topic: Kelly Price
Famous quotes containing the words life and, life, music and/or career:
“I devoutly believe it is the writer who has matured the film medium more than anyone else in Hollywood. Even when he knew nothing about his work, he brought at least knowledge of life and a more grown-up mind, a maturer feeling about the human being.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“To divide one’s life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings.”
—Clifton Fadiman (b. 1904)
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)