Kelly Price

Possessing an arena-filling voice she honed in the church, Kelly Price has alternated with ease between contemporary gospel and soul-rooted R&B across her lengthy career. Price established herself in the early '90s as a vital background vocalist -- most notably for <a href="spotify:artist:4iHNK0tOyZPYnBU7nGAgpQ">Mariah Carey</a> -- and toward the end of the decade stepped to the front with Soul of a Woman (1998), her platinum solo debut. While she could have easily left supporting work to the past, Price scored one of her biggest hits as a featured artist post-breakthrough with <a href="spotify:artist:6XpaIBNiVzIetEPCWDvAFP">Whitney Houston</a>'s "Heartbreak Hotel," her first Grammy-nominated recording. The singer, who is also a songwriter and producer, has since released five additional Top Ten R&B/hip-hop albums, from the platinum Mirror Mirror (2000) through Sing Pray Love, Vol. 1: Sing (2014). She has entered the 2020s with Grace (2021), an EP for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Motown+Gospel%22">Motown Gospel</a>.

Raised in a strict Pentecostal household, Kelly Cherelle Price started singing as a youngster in church, where her mother was a musical director. First heard on <a href="spotify:artist:3S34Unhn5yRcaH5K9aU5Et">Candi Staton</a>'s gospel album Standing on the Promises, the Queens native made greater inroads through secular music, beginning as a background vocalist for <a href="spotify:artist:19ra5tSw0tWufvUp8GotLo">George Michael</a> at Madison Square Garden. That 1991 performance led to several years of supporting <a href="spotify:artist:4iHNK0tOyZPYnBU7nGAgpQ">Mariah Carey</a> on-stage and in the studio, from <a href="spotify:artist:4iHNK0tOyZPYnBU7nGAgpQ">Carey</a>'s 1992 MTV Unplugged performance up through the 1997 release Butterfly. At the same time, Price recorded background vocals for the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:63yl9nDNrHpiAYGlNJxxjc">Frankie Knuckles</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7urq0VfqxEYEEiZUkebXT4">112</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:53QzNeFpzAaXYnrDBbDrIp">the Isley Brothers</a>, Puff Daddy, and <a href="spotify:artist:5me0Irg2ANcsgc93uaYrpb">the Notorious B.I.G.</a> -- including "Mo Money Mo Problems" -- and stayed connected to gospel with supporting work for <a href="spotify:artist:0a0l3QVhfMwQNAO4wPAmP9">Sounds of Blackness</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:7fkVKWnSaQNFwqrR62vsSo">Keziah Jones</a>.

Signed to <a href="spotify:artist:53QzNeFpzAaXYnrDBbDrIp">the Isley Brothers</a>' <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22T-Neck%22">T-Neck</a> label, which at the time was under the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Universal%22">Universal</a>-distributed <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Island%22">Island</a> label, Price emerged as a solo artist in 1998 with "Friend of Mine," more specifically with its soapy remix featuring <a href="spotify:artist:2mxe0TnaNL039ysAj51xPQ">R. Kelly</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:6W9RUw7xnNRYtgh8dimg7L">Ronald Isley</a>. It topped Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart and was a crossover hit, peaking at number 12 on the Hot 100. The single pushed the parent album Soul of a Woman, executive produced by <a href="spotify:artist:6W9RUw7xnNRYtgh8dimg7L">Isley</a>, to number 15 on the Billboard 200. Price was then featured (with <a href="spotify:artist:5NDMothbpdpq2xHqSjrrWn">Faith Evans</a>) on <a href="spotify:artist:6XpaIBNiVzIetEPCWDvAFP">Whitney Houston</a>'s "Heartbreak Hotel," a number two pop hit that was subsequently nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

As a consequence of the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Universal%22">Universal</a>-<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Polygram%22">Polygram</a> merger, Price moved to the roster of <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Def+Jam%22">Def Jam</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Def+Soul%22">Def Soul</a> subsidiary, and in 2000 returned with Mirror Mirror. That album yielded three Top 20 R&B/hip-hop singles, including an update of <a href="spotify:artist:446ZfKMyzU2hwfHA4CI3dy">Shirley Murdock</a>'s "As We Lay," Price's second Grammy-nominated recording -- her first for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Like the debut album, Mirror Mirror went platinum within months of landing. Price's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Def+Soul%22">Def Soul</a> phase concluded after the 2001 holiday release One Family: A Christmas Album and the 2003 Top Ten album Priceless. The latter set's "He Proposed" was up for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. Also in 2003, Price was cast in the original stage version of Why Did I Get Married?, her first collaboration with Tyler Perry.

Price has gone on to record a mix of contemporary gospel and R&B with longer gaps between LPs. She set up her own label under <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22GospoCentric%22">GospoCentric</a> to release the primarily self-produced 2006 album This Is Who I Am. Another revered gospel label, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Malaco%22">Malaco</a>, supported her 2011 LP Kelly, which garnered four Grammy nominations: Best R&B Vocal Performance ("Tired"), Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song (both for the Stokley Williams collaboration "Not My Daddy"), and Best R&B Album. Next was Sing Pray Love, Vol. 1: Sing, which arrived through <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22eOne%22">eOne</a> in 2014 and became Price's sixth Top Ten entry on the R&B/hip-hop chart. A couple years later, Price was among the many voices of <a href="spotify:artist:5K4W6rqBFWDnAN6FQUkS6x">Kanye West</a>'s "Ultralight Beam," resulting in her eighth and ninth Grammy nominations. Instead of continuing the Sing Pray Love series, Price cut Grace, an EP, released in 2021 on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Motown+Gospel%22">Motown Gospel</a>. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi