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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Kelly Price


Kelly Price is the daughter of the late Rev. Joseph Price and Evangelist Claudia Price and the second of three children. Born and reared in Queens, NY, Kelly grew up under the watchful eye of her mother and the pastorate of her grandparents, Bishop Jerome and Evangelist Joni Norman. Through the bible teaching and weekly intercessory prayer services her grandfather held that Kelly developed spiritually. It was there, in Full Gospel Mission COGIC, at the age of three that the many gifts deeply rooted inside Kelly were watered and began to grow. It was also there that her inner senses were awakened to the very real existence of God as more than just a higher power or an answer to the question, “How did we all get here?”

Along with her spirituality, Kelly’s musical talents also began to dominate her life. While most babies have to be taken from the crib and calmed from crying in the middle of the night, Kelly’s mother tells of the entire house being awakened by young Kelly singing out from her crib. As a young child Kelly knew that music was more than just something that happened on the radio, in church or during TV commercials. For her it was a part of life that quickly became a necessity. The music inside her became an outlet to express what she was feeling. One day, after experiencing deep sadness from a book she read for a black history project in school, Kelly wrote a song to express her complicated emotions. This was her first song. She was seven years old.

Kelly sang on her first recording before the age of 10 and by the time she was 18, she was recording and touring the world with multi-platinum pop diva Mariah Carey. Always a quick study, Kelly watched and learned the intricacies of studio and production work and soon began to expand into areas other than background singing. It is these early years that Kelly refers to as her “formal education.”

During these years and beyond, Kelly has shared her musical gifts with many artists and reached the number one spot on Billboard several times, before anyone even knew what the girl behind the voice and the pen looked like. Throughout her career Kelly has sung, recorded, toured, arranged and produced music for such incredible artists as George Michael, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Brian McKnight, LL Cool J, Ben Tankard, Mary J Blige, Brandy, The LOX, Donnie McClurkin, The Williams Brothers, Faith Evans, Karen Clarke-Sheard, Yolanda Adams, MASE, Whitney Houston, Mary Mary, Richard Smallwood, Eric Clapton, Wynona Judd, Gerald Levert, Angela Winbush, The Isley Bros and the legendary Ronald Isley just to name a few.

Though many record labels pursued Kelly as a solo recording artist, it was her connection with Isley and his relentless persistence that convinced her to enter into an alliance between Price and him that resulted in her debut solo CD, Soul of A Woman. In 1998, Kelly followed with the #1 smash women’s anthem of the year “Friend of Mine,” written by her. Next came the platinum success of Mirror Mirror, in 2000, One Family: A Christmas Album, in 2002, and the critically acclaimed Priceless, in 2003.

Out of the box, Price was a trendsetter and broke records by reaching Billboard’s top spot twice with the same song, having achieved that initial #1 victory with no music video at television. (Up until that point, it had never been done before.) This was a sweet victory for Price after being told by many music and marketing executives that she was talented and beautiful, but, “No one wants to look at a fat girl no matter how good she sounds” Kelly reminded the world that big was beautiful.

Price has gone on to sell millions of CDs and along with her music – as a singer, songwriter and producer – Price has also entered the acting arena as well having written a book. Now, Price expands her reach again with the release of her first gospel CD, This Is Who I Am, released by EcclectiSounds/GospoCentric through Zomba Records.

courtesy gospelcity.com

De Bishop

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