Kelly Rowland showed that she agreed with Jay-Z’s viral Grammys speech, where he stood up for his wife Beyonce, in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, published on Tuesday, February 6. The “Dilemma” singer, 42, said that she’s sure that his speech resonated with tons of artists, as the rapper, 54, spoke out against the Recording Academy, especially for continually snubbing his wife, 42, for Album of the Year, despite being the most decorated Grammy winner in history. “Shawn Carter is one of the greatest men I know and his words ring so loud to me,” she said.
The singer, who was in Destiny’s Child with Beyonce, showed that Jay’s speech took a lot of courage, and she definitely supported it. “I couldn’t be more proud of him,” she said on the red carpet for the premiere of One Love. “I’m just really happy for a lot of things that he said.”
Jay spoke about how some of the nominees attending the ceremony may also feel like they themselves had been snubbed. “Some of you are going to go home tonight and feel like you’ve been robbed. Some of you may get robbed. Some of you don’t belong in the category,” he said. “You got to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve. Until they call you chairman, until they call you a genuis, until they call you the greatest of all time. You feel me?”
Kelly explained that she was sure that the “99 Problems” rapper’s speech surely left a mark for the artists, and she hoped that it connected with Grammy voters. “I think that he made a lot of artists feel very seen and very heard in those minutes that he took on stage whether you carried some of that for years or a year or felt some sort of way about it,” she told ET. “It’s no disrespect, as he said, it’s just more so thinking of new ways whether its vote or come together for new artists. What are the rules? How do they apply?”
During Jay’s speech, he also spoke about the history of rap artists boycotting the Grammys, as the awards weren’t being shown, and he also spoke about how Beyonce has never received the Album of the Year award, despite having 32 Grammys. “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than anyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work,” he said.