Kelly Rowland does not want to hear ANY Chris Brown criticism.
The Destiny’s Child alum took to the stage on Sunday night at the American Music Awards to present the Favorite Male R&B Artist category. After reading the nominees, she opened the enveloped and crowned the Under The Influence singer as the winner. But fans on social media were focused on what went down immediately after that!!
Related: Did Normani Just TANK Her Career By Collaborating With Abuser Chris Brown??
The 33-year-old recording artist was not at the show to accept his AMA win. So, Kelly told the crowd she’d accept the honor on his behalf. However, some audience members could be heard booing over Brown’s selection as the show’s favorite male R&B crooner. And they jeered through Kelly’s revelation!
Not content to let fans yell while she was on stage, the 41-year-old star told audience members to “chill out” while she was delivering a message to Chris. At first, Kelly started to show gratitude to the singer before cutting off fans in the audience and wagging her finger at the crowd over their negative reactions:
“Now Chris Brown is not here tonight, so I am accepting this award on his behalf. Excuse me! Chill out.”
Oof!
Then, she gushed over Brown’s music. Telling the singer “I love you,” she added:
“But I want 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 [and] bring it to you. I love you. Congratulations, and congratulations to all the nominees in this category.”
Wow…
Quite a favorable attitude towards a man who has repeatedly been accused of violence against women! (And plenty of other s**t, too.) And Kelly’s finger-wagging shutdown of fans who voiced their displeasure was a memorable moment on its own. You can see the viral clip go down (below):
Yikes!!
Not a great look to see a woman defending a man convicted of domestic abuse! Over on Twitter, viewers reacted to Rowland’s jaw-dropping defense of Brown, where many were up in arms over the unfortunate situation, as you can see (below):
“Why was Kelly Rowland going so hard for Chris brown on that stage?”
“Shame on Kelly Rowland for supporting an abuser”
“doing all that for chris brown in 2022 is… whatever”
“The worlds most famous domestic abuser”
“I don’t think I have actually heard a crowd do that at an award show like that before”
“This why Kelly gets so much shade from everybody. Like Chris hates women like Kelly.”
“What the f**k is Chris brown doing still winning awards and why is Kelly Rowland up there thanking his ass wtf truly.”
Of course, Brown has found himself under fire multiple times during his career. Back in 2009, he chose to plea guilty to a felony following a domestic violence incident with Rihanna. He was placed on probation for several years and was ordered to complete community service as part of the plea.
Another ex-girlfriend, Karrueche Tran, accused Brown in 2017 of allegedly punching her in the stomach and pushing her down a flight of stairs while they dated in the early 2010s. Brown denied those accusations at the time. Still, Tran was granted a five-year restraining order against the Call Me Every Day singer over the alleged incident.
Brown was also sued for allegedly drugging and raping a woman in 2020, and accused of allegedly hitting another woman in 2021. An investigation into that latter allegation was later dropped due to insufficient evidence.
Related: Chris Congratulated Rihanna On Giving Birth — And Twitter Is Going OFF!
Per Page Six and others, Brown had apparently been scheduled to perform at the AMAs before his slot on the show was apparently nixed. Earlier in the weekend, he took to Instagram to reveal video from what appeared to be a rehearsal for the show. “U SERIOUS?” he wrote in the caption of the clip (HERE), with followers lamenting in the comments how his performance was scrapped.
It is unclear what led to that. Though, of course, Brown ended up not being in the building at all for the award show on Sunday night. What do y’all make of Kelly Rowland coming to his defense, Perezcious readers? Share your thoughts in the comments (below)…
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available. Consider calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, or text START to 88788, or go to https://www.thehotline.org/.
[Image via American Music Awards/YouTube/WENN]
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