Kelly Price
Kelly Cherelle Price (born April 4, 1973) is an American R&B and gospel singer. Beginning her career in 1992,[1] Price originally performed backing vocals for Mariah Carey on multiple songs, including her Billboard Hot 100-number one singles "All I Want for Christmas Is You" and "Fantasy." She rose to wider prominence in 1997 following her uncredited performances on the number-one single "Mo Money Mo Problems" by the Notorious B.I.G. and the top-five single "Feel So Good" by Mase, prompting her to record as a lead artist. Her debut studio album, Soul of a Woman (1998) received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); its lead single, "Friend of Mine" (featuring R. Kelly and Ronald Isley) peaked within the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.
Not to be confused with Kelly Pryce.
Kelly Price
Price guest featured alongside Faith Evans on Whitney Houston's 1998 single "Heartbreak Hotel," which peaked at number two on the chart and earned a Grammy Award nomination for the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or a Group with Vocals. Her second and fourth albums, Mirror Mirror (2000) and Priceless (2003) both peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart. She provided uncredited guest appearances on Kanye West's 2016 songs "Ultralight Beam" and "Low Lights" (recording a sample of "So Alive" by Kings of Tomorrow), from his album The Life of Pablo.
Price has won a Soul Train Music Award, and has received nine Grammy Award nominations.[2]
Family[edit]
Price grew up in the Edgemere Projects located in New York City in Far Rockaway, Queens. Her father died when she was nine years old. She resides in Atlanta, Georgia.[13] Price's grandfather is Jerome Norman, bishop and pastor of the Full Gospel Mission Church of God in Christ in Queens and Jurisdictional Prelate of the First Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Barbados since 1985 by the late Presiding Bishop J.O. Patterson. Her mother, Claudia (1951–2020), was the former musical director of the church. Price began singing in church as a youngster.[14]
In 2020, Price lost her grandfather to COVID-19.[15]
Breast cancer activism[edit]
In December 2000, Price donated $250,000 to fight breast cancer. She presented a check to Tony Martell of the T.J. Martell Foundation and Denise Rich of G&P Foundation For Cancer Research to help with the ongoing fight against breast cancer. Price donated the proceeds from her single "Love Sets You Free" which she recorded in January 2000.[16] In April 1999, Price volunteered to showcase her fashion designs during a special charity gala and fashion show to help the National Breast Cancer Awareness Initiative raise money for breast cancer education for minority women.[17] The previous year, in 1998, Price learned that both her mother and her mother-in-law had been diagnosed with breast cancer, which would later claim her mother-in-law's life.[18]
Price's mother was a survivor of inflammatory breast cancer[19] and an activist in educating the public about the disease. She was the chairwoman of the seventh annual Sister to Sister Fitness Festival held in Dallas, Texas which was sponsored by the Celebrating Life Foundation. Claudia experienced pain in her breast in 1997, but said fear and a lack of insurance kept her from seeking immediate medical attention. Instead, she waited two years before seeing a doctor. While at work one day in 1999, her doctor called and said she had inflammatory breast cancer. Doctors gave her two months to live. She underwent chemotherapy, and the disease was in remission as of October 2006.[20]
