{"id":597389,"date":"2026-09-11T19:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T19:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/597389\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T19:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T19:02:10","slug":"kehlani-accepts-billboards-rb-artist-of-the-year-award-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/597389\/","title":{"rendered":"Kehlani Accepts Billboard’s R&B Artist of the Year Award: Video"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSinger-songwriter Kehlani<\/a> was actually 12 years old when she got her first mention in Billboard. The Rhythm & Blues column appearing in the Sept. 15, 2007, issue features a story about a developing artist showcase in California\u2019s Bay Area called Strive for More Music. And \u201camong the artists who struck a chord with the audience of local press, radio DJs and music professionals was a 12-year-old named Khelani Parrish.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tNearly 20 years later, that promising pre-teen is the two-time Grammy winner Kehlani who took the stage at the 2026 Billboard R&B\/Hip-Hop Power Players celebration at Ludlow House in New York on Wednesday (Sept. 9) to accept the R&B Artist of the Year Award. Having flown in that same morning following the Nashville stop on her world tour the night before, Kehlani first thanked Billboard for the honor and then next dedicated the award to her manager \u2014 and 2026 R&B\/Hip-Hop Power Players Executive of the Year \u2014 David Ali.<\/p>\n

\n\tKehlani began her acceptance speech by defining what a power player really means, noting that for her, it means to be an important part of a team and to be surrounded by other key players. After then dedicating her award to Ali, Kehlani continued, \u201cHe\u2019s being honored tonight, but I feel like he needs to be told more often by me in front of people just how special he is. Oh no, I\u2019m gonna cry. David was an underdog, often underlooked in the Bay Area music scene, but was never afraid to give free ideas and unwavering support without expectation ever \u2026 David and I hustled. We shared a vehicle. We took a million meetings. We signed a record deal. We dropped my first mixtape and we went on my very first tour.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRightfully so, David earned the title of my manager,\u201d she continued. \u201cWhat I didn\u2019t know at the time is I gained the closest thing I\u2019ve ever had to a father. While people have seen David earn all of the wins alongside me, no one saw him right by my side during the lows, the mental health struggles, the hospital visits, funerals, the public witch hunts, the times where my passion for justice has led to major losses in our business, threatening our livelihood and all we\u2019ve worked for. But he\u2019s never tried to change my heart. In his own words, God\u2019s always got a plan for us.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDavid has not only picked me up off of the floor, but he sat on the floor next to me and held my hand. He\u2019s never told me money was more important than my humanity. He\u2019s heard me cry. He\u2019s wiped my tears and he figured out ways to keep this s\u2013t going so I can stay on the floor just a little longer until I\u2019m ready to get up \u2026 He\u2019s the godfather of my daughter. He\u2019s my family,\u201d she added. \u201cThis is not solely my experience either. He\u2019s not only been instrumental in my life, but to many others. David, you\u2019ve taught me that kindness and doing right by people takes you farther than anything. You\u2019ve taught me that hard work beats talent; that true unconditional love can exist in this world. Thank you, Billboard, for honoring my family tonight between Destin [Conrad], David and I.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch Kehlani\u2019s speech below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singer-songwriter Kehlani was actually 12 years old when she got her first mention in Billboard. The Rhythm &…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,2526,34116,157,3296,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-597389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-hiphop","tag-genre-rb","tag-music","tag-music-news","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}