Kelly Rowland has been called out for appearing to support Chris Brown at the American Music Awards 2022.
At Sunday night’s awards ceremony, the former Destiny’s Child singer took to the stage to announce the winner for favorite male R&B artist. Nominees included Brent Faiyaz, Giveon, Lucky Daye, The Weeknd, and Chris Brown.
When the 41-year-old opened up the envelope to reveal Brown as the winner of the category, loud boos from the audience were immediately audible—prompting Rowland to look surprised as she attempted to continue with her presenting duties.
“Now, Chris Brown is not here tonight, so I’m accepting this award on his behalf,” Rowland said before sternly addressing the continued booing. “Excuse me…chill out.”
Rowland continued: “But I wanted to tell Chris, thank you so much for making great R&B music, and I want to tell him thank you for being an incredible performer. I’ll take this award—bring it to you. I love you. Congratulations. And congratulations to all the nominees in this category.”
Viewers didn’t take Rowland’s comments lightly; Brown has been a controversial and divisive figure for years.
One person tweeted: “Chris Brown just won an #AMAs *and* Kelly Rowland shushed the audience so she could praise him and preach about how much she loves him? Whew! It might be time to turn this off.”
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Another added, “Kelly Rowland defending Chris Brown with her whole chest. Yikes,” while a third added, “No fucking way Chris Brown just won something and Kelly Rowland saying she loves him… what the fuck is this #amas.”
Brown was set to perform a Michael Jackson tribute during the event. However, it was cancelled at the last minute, which surprised the singer. In a video of his rehearsal shared to his Instagram, Brown wrote in the caption: “U SERIOUS?” before writing in the comments: “WOULDVE been the ama performance but they cancelled me for reasons unknown.”
This article first appeared on Glamour UK.
