Kelly Rowland has doubled down on her defence of Chris Brown being named Favourite Male R&B Artist at Sunday’s American Music Awards.
There were boos when Rowland read Brown’s name, prompting her to hold up a finger and say “Excuse me, chill out.” (Brown was not at the show.)
Rowland continued: “I want 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 love you.”
Winners of the AMAs are chosen by voting by fans – many of whom may be too young to know about Brown’s brutal assault of Rihanna almost 14 years ago.
A videographer for TMZ caught up with Rowland and asked her to share her thoughts on Brown being boo’ed.
“I believe that grace is very real and we all need a dose of it,” Rowland replied. “And before we point fingers at anybody, we should realize how grateful we are for every moment that we get…even our own things that we have. It’s important to remember to be human. We are humans.”
Asked if Brown should be forgiven, Rowland said: “You know what, we all need to be forgiven for anything that we could be doing, 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.”
In a conversation with Oprah Winfrey in 2012, Rihanna said: “I had to forgive him because I cared about him still. And the minute I let go of that, I started living again.”
Brown pleaded guilty in 2009 to assault and was sentenced to five years of probation, six months of community service and a year of domestic violence counselling. He was also ordered to stay away from Rihanna for five years.
In 2019, Canada’s Justin Bieber came under fire for defending Brown. “Everyone wants to wait til people die To give them the credit they deserve. I’m calling it now when [Chris Brown] passes away after a long full life, you will miss what you had in front of you the whole time ... trust me watch you will see,” he wrote on Instagram. “The people who have over looked this mans talent because of a mistake he made.. you need to reevaluate!”