During her formative years Rowland was raised primarily by her mother Doris Garrison in Atlanta. However, the work commitments of her mother's job as a live-in nanny led to a mutual decision between Rowland, her mother and the family of fellow group member Beyoncé Knowles that Rowland should live with the Knowles family because it was difficult for Rowland's mother to travel with Rowland back and forth for rehearsals after she joined Destiny's Child. Rowland spent a great deal of nights at the Knowleses' house. Soon a month turned into a year, then years. However, Rowland's mother often visited Rowland and the Knowleses', though, and cooked dinner, and they would all eat as a family. In the May issue of Essence Magazine, Rowland is pictured with her biological mother Doris Garrison and her foster mother Tina Knowles accompanying the article entitled "Mothers Love". Rowland wrote an open letter to both Doris Garrison and Tina Knowles, which is published in the article, expressing her love towards both of her 'two mothers' for raising her and supporting her career .
Rowland lived with the family of fellow group member Beyoncé Knowles starting at age 11 and was mistakenly (and helped by the media) referred to as her cousin. Rowland first met LaTavia Roberson in elementary school who eventually introduced her to Beyoncé. The girls met Letoya Luckett and formed a quartet that would perform in their backyards and in Tina Knowles' beauty shop. After performing at local events, they got their break when they entered Star Search. The group, then named Girls Tyme, were heartbroken when they lost the competition. Mathew Knowles, Beyoncé's father and Rowland's legal guardian, decided to help the girls reach their dreams of becoming singers. He quit his six figure salary at Xerox to manage the group.
Rowland released her first solo album, Simply Deep in October 2002 domestically and in February 2003 internationally, the album featured the No.1 Hot 100 smash hit, "Dilemma", a Grammy-winning (Best Rap/Sung Collaboration) duet with hip-hop superstar Nelly, Dilemma eventually spent 10 weeks at #1. The debut album did achieve moderate success. With "Dilemma" Rowland became the first member of Destiny's Child to hit No. 1 outside of the group. Internationally, Kelly was on a roll, hitting the No. 1 slot on the U.K., where her album was certified platinum, and in several other countries' album charts when Gold in Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand Canada and in the U.S. peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album chart and No. 12 on the Billboard 200. Simply Deep is certified gold in the US. The album has sold over 500,000 copies in the United States and 1.5 million worldwide.
In 2005, Rowland featured on the album Illumination by soul greats Earth, Wind & Fire. Kelly's singing can be heard on their song "This Is How I Feel" also featuring singer Sleepy Brown. She was also heard on Trina's song called "Here We Go", which impacted radio in September 2005 and peaked at #8 and #17 on Billboard's R&B and Pop charts respectively.
Kelly has been working on her second album on and off since 2004. The album is entitled "My Story: Kelly Rowland" and it was to be released in July 2006, but was pushed back to February 2007. Rowland hosted and performed a world exclusive performance of her new single "Gotsta Go" the 5th annual MTV Asia Awards 2006 which was available to over 400 million households via 43 channels as well as through syndication worldwide and took place at Siam Paragon in Bangkok on May 6. Rowland also performed her new single at MTV Japan Music Awards held on May 27. Before Rowland's second album is finally released she will appear on Legendary soul singer, Dionne Warwick's duets CD, who is celebrating her 45th year in music, to be released later in 2006. Other artists appearing on Warwick's new album include Britney Spears, Kelis, Angie Stone, and Mya.
