Kelly Rowland tells audience to ‘chill out’ and defends Chris Brown at AMAs

Kelly Rowland has made an eyebrow-raising move to defend Chris Brown at the AMAs.

The former Destiny’s Child member took to the stage to announce that Brown was the winner of the Favorite Male R&B Artist award, which he was not present to accept.

She then took the moment to publicly defend Brown, who is a close friend of hers, as members of the audience booed him.

“Excuse me,” Rowland said over the crowd. “Chill out.”

Watch the video above.

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“I want to tell Chris, thank you so much for making great R&B music,” she said, adding, “and I want to tell him, thank you for being an incredible performer.”

“l’ll take this award [and] bring it to you. I love you. Congratulations, and congratulations to all the nominees in this category.”

The moment has sent fans into a state of total confusion, given Brown’s reputation has been in the mud since 2009, when he was found to have physically assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna.

The Look At Me Now singer later made headlines in 2017 for alleged altercations with his ex-girlfriend Karreuche Tran, who he dated on and off from 2010 to 2015.

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Tran claimed in 2017 that Brown punched her in the stomach and pushed her down a set of stairs and obtained a five-year restraining order against Brown, who denied the allegations.

Brown has been accused of hitting a woman in 2021 – an investigation was later dropped due to “insufficient evidence” – and was sued for allegedly drugging and raping a woman in 2020. He has denied both claims.

In 2020, he reacted on Instagram, writing: “Whenever I’m releasing music or projects, ‘THEY’ try to pull some real bulls–t.”

This is not the first time Rowland has defended Brown.

In 2019, Rowland took to Twitter to defend her friend after he was accused of colourism due to a lyric in his song, Need A Stack.

Criticism grew for Brown on Twitter following the controversy, which led Rowland to tweet “Chris we love you”. Immediately, fans questioned her action.

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In an interview with OK! Magazine at the time, Rowland backtracked on her comments.

“I was actually in Australia, and I did not realise…” she said of the context behind her comment.

“I was actually giving him credit for his.. what was it? He’d broken some sort of record, and I said, ‘We love you Chris’,” she stumbled.

“And then I realised on the other part of that and it was something that was taken in the completely wrong way.”

Watch the video of the 2019 interview above.

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit whiteribbon.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.

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