Kelly Rowland is ‘proud’ of Beyonce’s husband Jay-Z for calling out the Recording Academy for failing to give his wife the album of the year award – despite her stellar winning history.
Rowland, Beyonce’s former Destiny’s Child bandmate, told ET Online she was ‘happy’ with the message he sent, noting his speech rang ‘so loud’ to her.
Jay-Z was honored with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award for his contribution to the music industry at the Grammys when he spoke up about Beyonce’s best album snubs.
Speaking with the outlet at the One Love premiere on Tuesday, Rowland, 42, said: ‘Shawn Carter is one of the greatest men I know and his words ring so loud to me,’ she told ET Online. ‘I couldn’t be more proud of him.’
‘I’m just really happy for a lot of things that he said,’ she continued. ‘I think that he made a lot of artists feel very seen and very heard in those minutes that he took on stage.’
With his 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy standing on stage beside him, and wife Beyonce looking on from their table in the audience, Jay-Z spoke about the importance of dreams, drive and ambition.
He said that there were more important things in life than winning Grammys, noting they were subjective – and pointing out his superstar wife had never won best album.
‘I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year,’ Jay-Z said. ‘So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most Grammys; never won Album of the Year. That doesn’t work.’
Rowland also struggled to understand Beyonce’s album of the year snubs. Speaking with ET Online, she added: ‘I feel like she is an icon… and that’s for a reason — it’s because she starts trends. She is innovative, her thoughts are big and bright and she just jumps for them and does it.’
‘I think that her albums are a reflection of that, and it should be really celebrated in that way,’ she added.
