Kellys Net Worth
What is Kelly’s net worth?
Kelly is an American singer-songwriter who has a net worth of $4 million. As an artist, Kelis has worked with producers such as will.i.am and Pharrell Williams on hits such as “Milkshake” and “Bossy.” During her singing career, Callis has sold more than 6 million albums worldwide and has been nominated for two Grammy Awards. Kelis is also known for being married to rapper/entrepreneur Nas from 2005 to 2010.
Kelis left her parents’ home when she was sixteen, and four years later she landed a deal with Virgin Records. In mid-1998, she had already started recording her debut album “Kaleidoscopic”, which was released within a year. The album hardly produced considerable success, such as “Caught out There”, which enjoyed huge popularity throughout Europe.
In 2001, Kelis released her second album “Wanderland” exclusively in Europe, Asia and Latin America. It was her third album, Tasty (2003), released through Arista, which brought Kelis mainstream success. Several more albums followed, notably “Kelis Was Here” (2006) and “Flesh Tone” (2010).
early life
Kelis was born on August 21, 1979 in New York City. Her father, Kenneth, was a jazz musician and Pentecostal minister who taught at Wesleyan University. Her mother, Eveliss, is a fashion designer. Kelly is of African-American and Chinese-Puerto Rican descent. She grew up with three sisters and often sang in the church choir in addition to learning how to play the violin, piano and saxophone. She attended Manhattan Country School, then Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and Performing Arts. She also worked as a bartender and sales assistant in high school.
Profession
In high school, Kelis formed the R&B trio BLU. After high school, she met Neptune, a duo consisting of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. They were impressed with her artistic talent and helped land her a recording deal with Virgin Records in 1998. Kelis then began work on her debut album “Kaleidoscope”, which she completed and released in 1999. The album peaked at number 144 on the US Billboard 200 chart and reached the top five on the Top Heatseekers chart. Her most notable single from the album was “Caught Out There”, which became a Top 10 R&B/Hip-Hop hit. The album performed generally well in Europe, peaking at number 43 on the UK Albums Chart.
In 2001, Kelis won the BRIT International Breakthrough Award and the NME Award for Best R&B/Soul. She joined Moby and U2 on tour, further cementing her European stardom.
Kelis released her second album “Wanderland” in 2001 in Europe, Asia and Latin America, but not in the United States. Around this time, Virgin Records dropped her from the label. While the record was not a commercial success, it was praised in publications such as The Guardian and NME.
She started working on singles for her upcoming third album “Tasty”. She achieved mainstream success in the US with the release of the single “Milkshake”, which reached #1 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album ended up in the US. “Milkshake” earned Kelis a 2004 Grammy Award nomination in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance category. The album went platinum in the UK.
In August 2006, Kelis released her fourth studio album “Kelis Was Here” on Jive Records. The album debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart. Its lead single “Bossy” received frequent radio airplay and went multi-platinum. The album was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 2007 Grammy Awards.
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She then released her fifth album “Flesh Tone” on Interscope Records in 2010. She has worked with producer will.i.am and others such as Diplo, David Guetta and Benny Benassi. Following its release, she embarked on her first US tour, taking part in major festivals such as Glastonbury and the Good Vibrations Festival. A few years later, she began working with producer David Sitek. She released her next album “Food” in April 2014. In 2019, Kelis re-released her second studio album “Wanderland”, which was finally released in the US. She then embarked on a 20th anniversary tour in 2020 for her debut album Kaleidoscope.
Outside of music, Kelis has a career in food. Between 2006 and 2010, she trained as a part-time sauce chef and graduated from Le Cordon Bleu. In 2006, she co-authored and released a cookbook with Lauren Pesavento. In 2013, Kelis launched her line of sauces called Feast at the Beverly Hills Food & Wine Festival. She retitled the line “Bounty & Full,” and it launched in full in 2015. She also launched her own cooking series “Saucy & Sweet” on The Cooking Channel in 2014 and built a food truck at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. In September 2015, she released her first personal cookbook, My Life on a Plate, which explores Kelis’ experiences with motherhood, marriage and music through food .
personal life
In 2002, Kelis met rapper Nas at the MTV Video Music Awards. They dated for a year before getting engaged in 2004. They married in January 2005 and remained together until April 2009, when they filed for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable divorce. Kalis was seven months pregnant at the time and gave birth to the couple’s son a few months later. Kelis said her relationship with Nas was physically and psychologically abusive and she decided she had to leave the marriage before giving birth for the sake of her future son. The couple was embroiled in an ongoing dispute over the custody of their son.
In 2014, Kelis married photographer Mike Mora. The two had a son in November 2015. Since January 2020, Kelly and Maura have been living on a ranch outside of Los Angeles. She gave birth to a daughter in September 2020. Mora announced in September 2021 that he was battling terminal stomach cancer.
