The ZORA Interview

How Kelly Rowland Balances Music-Making and Motherhood

Rowland’s New EP ‘K’ Releases Today, Plus She’s Not Rushing the ‘Snap Back’ Body After Birth of Baby Noah

Adrienne Gibbs
ZORA
Published in
4 min readFeb 19, 2021

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Photo of Kelly Rowland with a logo that says “THE ZORA EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW” on the right.
Illustration by Dennis Huynh for ZORA. Photo courtesy of Kelly Rowland.

Kelly Rowland is celebrating her 40th birthday, a new baby, a new clothing line, and her new music release K, a soul-confirming, five-bop, melanin-popped dance-in-your-house-naked-during-Covid jaunt into fun and discernment.

She is poised to talk about this record when her littlest co-worker decided he had something to say. Newborn Noah — just about a month old — gurgles and coos. Rowland takes a moment to attend to him. She murmurs in a sing-songy, soft voice. Asks about his bottle. And in so doing she signals that work doesn’t trump motherhood, but can live side-by-side with it. And also, hey, It’s Covid-19 and everyone is working from home and even celebrity kids sometimes show up in interviews.

“I talked to a girlfriend of mine in Houston and she’s like, ‘you’re working?’” says Rowland. “‘What? How are you working?’ I said, ‘well, you know, the show must go on. And, I’m still having fun.’ I have a great team and support system around me to help me with my boys. So why not?”

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Adrienne Gibbs
ZORA
Writer for

Director of Content @Medium. Award-winning journalist. Featured in a Beyoncé reel. Before now? EBONY, Netflix, Sun-Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe.