(Kevin Mazur, WireImage)
It’s not easy being in the limelight, especially if you’re a kid. Yahoo! Music celebrity guest blogger Kelly Rowland can relate. The former Destiny’s Child singer on the heels of releasing her fourth solo album, “Talk A Good Game,” and taking on a new role as a judge on the “X-Factor” singing competition, says she was lucky to avoid some of the pitfalls other young entertainers experienced. In her special blog entry,Kelly explains what helped her stay on the right track.
I think that where I was lucky is the fact that I have a wonderful support system. I can’t speak on anyone else because I don’t know what their support system is like.
Destiny's Child in 1999. (Photo: SGranitz, WireImage)
Destiny's Child in 1999. (Photo: SGranitz, WireImage)
I’m grateful that I was with the ladies, and we had each other. We also had our folks around who would have a specific time for us to be home or in our hotel rooms or how late we could hang out and things like that.
We were protected a lot, and I’m happy that we were.
We were working 13-hour days. We were tired at the end of the day. As interesting and intriguing as it was to go out, we did our work, and we went home and slept and rested. When it was time to go out or when we were old enough, we went out. But we also felt the responsibility of being a role model.
Granted, when you come into the industry, they don’t actually warn you about it. It just kinda happens, and some people don’t want the responsibility, and some don’t mind it.
It was us having respect for ourselves and having respect for what we love to do and knowing that this opportunity could be taken from us in the blink of an eye.
I know for us, we were really hard workers. It took us a while to get our record deal, and it took us a while to get to all of these places in our careers.
We didn’t want those things to go away. We worked so hard for them.
That’s what’s so cool about the "X-Factor" to me is that I get to play a part in helping other artists, choosing songs and wardrobe and being a part of their development stage, and that’s just as important as everything else.
Kelly and Beyoncé were members of Girls Tyme, a pre-Destiny's Child group, that competed on Star Search.I remember what it felt like to perform on "Star Search" when we were kids, and feel like you just want to win so bad. When you get those numbers back or when someone says, ‘I’m sorry,’ that’s such a huge let down.
For me as a judge, I always want to have something to still give them some encouragement.
Because we didn’t win, I share our story, actually. I say, ‘You know, this is just one place.’ I say, ‘You can go somewhere tomorrow, two months from now, a year from now, two years from now, who knows? And it will be just your time. But don’t make this a no for everything else you do.’
-- As told to Billy Johnson Jr.
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