50 interesting facts about R. Kelly: won three Grammy Awards for "I Believe I Can Fly"

50 things about R. Kelly, best known for his song "I Believe I Can Fly".

1. Robert Sylvester Kelly known professionally as R. Kelly, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, rapper and former professional basketball player.

2. A native of Chicago, Illinois, often referred to as the King of R&B, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s and debuted in 1992 with the group Public Announcement.

3. In 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play.

4. He is known for a collection of major hit singles including "Bump N' Grind", "Your Body's Callin'", "I Believe I Can Fly", "Gotham City", "Ignition (Remix)", "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time", "The World's Greatest", "I'm a Flirt (Remix)", and the hip-hopera "Trapped in the Closet".

5. In 1998, Kelly won three Grammy Awards for "I Believe I Can Fly".

6. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous hip hop and contemporary R&B artists.

7. Kelly became the first music star to play professional basketball, when he got signed in 1997.

8. Kelly has written, produced, and remixed songs and albums for many artists, including Aaliyah's 1994 debut album Age Ain't Nothing but a Number.

9. In 1996, Kelly was nominated for a Grammy for writing Michael Jackson's song "You Are Not Alone".

10. In 2002 and 2004, Kelly released collaboration albums with rapper Jay-Z and has been a guest vocalist for other hip hop artists like Nas, Sean Combs, and The Notorious B.I.G.

11. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has recognized R. Kelly as one of the best-selling music artists in the United States with 40 million albums sold as well as only the fifth black artist to crack the top 50 of the same list.

12. In March 2011, R. Kelly was named the most successful R&B artist of the last 25 years by Billboard.

13. Kelly has released 12 solo studio albums, and sold over 100 million records worldwide making him the most successful R&B male artist of the 1990s and also one of the best selling musical artists of all time.

14. He has been credited for helping redefine R&B and hip hop, earning the nicknames "King of R&B" and "King of Pop-Soul".

15. He is listed by Billboard as the most successful R&B/Hip Hop artist of the past 25 years (1985-2010) and also the most successful R&B artist in history.

16. Throughout his career, Kelly has won numerous awards, including a Guinness World Records as well as countless of other awards like Grammy, BET, Soul Train, Billboard, NAACP and American Music Award.

17. R. Kelly married American choreographer and dancer Andrea Danyell Lee in 1996.

18. They have three children together named Joann Kelly, Jaya Kelly and Robert Kelly, Jr.

19. In 2009, after thirteen years of marriage, the couple divorced.

20. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Robert Sylvester Kelly is the third of four children.

21. Kelly's single mother, Joanne, was a singer. She raised her children Baptist.

22. Kelly's father was absent throughout his son's life.

23. Kelly began singing in the church choir at age eight.

24. Kelly grow up at a house full of women, whom he said would act differently when his mother and grandparents were not home.

25. At a young age Kelly was often sexually abused by a woman who was at least ten years older than what he was. "I was too afraid and too ashamed," Kelly wrote in his autobiography book about why he never told anyone.

26. At age 11, he was shot in the shoulder while riding his bike home; the bullet is reportedly still lodged in his shoulder.

27. Kelly was 8 years old when he had his first girlfriend. They would hold hands and eat make-believe meals inside their playhouse built from cardboard, where they "vowed to be boyfriend and girlfriend forever." Their last play date turned tragic when, after fighting with some older kids over a play area by a creek, Lulu was pushed into the water. A fast-moving current swept her away while she screamed Kelly's name. Shortly after, she was found dead downstream. Kelly calls Lulu his very first musical inspiration.

28. Kelly entered Kenwood Academy in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood in the fall of 1980 where he met his music teacher Lena McLin, who encouraged Kelly to perform the Stevie Wonder classic "Ribbon in the Sky" in a high school talent show.

29. Lena Mclin encouraged a young Kelly to leave the basketball team. She said he was furious at first, but after his performance at the school talent show, he changed his mind.

30. Kelly played high school basketball with the late basketball player Ben Wilson. He sang "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" at Ben Wilson's funeral.

31. Robert was a street performer under the Chicago 'L' tracks.

32. As a teenager, Kelly began street performing under the Chicago 'L' tracks before he eventually formed a group with his friends Marc McWilliams, Vincent Walker, and Shawn Brooks.

33. In 1989, Kelly, McWilliams, Walker and Brooks formed the group MGM (Musically Gifted Men).

34. In 1990, MGM recorded and released their first single "Why You Wanna Play Me", after releasing the single the group disbanded.

35. In 1991, Kelly signed with Jive Records and teamed with a new group from Chicago called Public Announcement.

36. R. Kelly got his breakthrough in 1989 when he, along with Marc McWilliams, Vincent Walker and Shawn Brooks, participated on the talent TV show Big Break, hosted by Natalie Cole. Kelly went on to win the $100,000 grand prize.

37. Subsequently Kelly's debut album Born into the 90's was released in early 1992 (credited as R. Kelly and Public Announcement).

38. Kelly's first solo album, 12 Play, was released on November 9, 1993 and yielded the singer's first number-one hit, "Bump N' Grind", which spent a record-breaking 12 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart.

39. Following the success of 12 Play, Kelly found himself in demand as a writer, producer, and mixer.

40. In 1995, Kelly garnered his first-ever Grammy nominations; two nominations for writing, producing and composing Michael Jackson's last number one hit "You Are Not Alone".

41. Kelly's success continued with the release of his second studio album, R. Kelly which was released on November 14, 1995 in the United States. Critics praised Kelly for his departure from salacious bedroom songs to embracing vulnerability.

42. Kelly released one of his most successful singles with "I Believe I Can Fly", an inspirational song originally released on the soundtrack for the film Space Jam.

43. "I Believe I Can Fly" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on the UK charts for three weeks and won three Grammy Awards in 1998.

44. Rolling Stone magazine named it as the 406th of its top 500 songs of all time.

45. In 1996, Kelly marries Andrea Lee, a choreographer and dancer from his stage show whose nickname within his inner circle is "Puppydog."

46. In 1997, Kelly fulfilled a longtime dream of his and signed a contract to play basketball with the Atlantic City Seagulls of the USBL. Kelly wore the number 12 in honor of his album 12 Play.

47. In early 2003, Chocolate Factory became a runaway success for Kelly, selling over three million copies due to the success of singles such as "Ignition". "Snake" and "Step in the Name of Love" were also popular singles. "Snake", incidentally, became the basis of the dancehall reggae riddim known as Baghdad.

48. In 2004, Kelly released the ambitious two-disc set Happy People/U Saved Me, with the first disc including feel-good, stepping-inspired tracks, while focusing on gospel and inspirational material on the second disc.

49. On 2006, Kelly started The Light It Up Tour, It later became his first concert DVD.

50. In 1995 Kelly donated £20,000 to ex-footballer Garth Crooks representative for a UK charity. Kelly has also been in charity events in efforts to bring awareness for the fight against breast cancer, being that his mother died from breast cancer in 1993.

Source: Wikipedia.org