Kelis Rogers [IPA: kɛ'liːs] (born August 21, 1979) is an American singer and songwriter who has seen moderate success in the United States and major success overseas. She is currently married to hip-hop star Nas.

Kelis Rogers was born in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. Her father, Kenneth, was a jazz musician and a Pentecostal minister; her mother, Eveliss, was a fashion designer, who inspired her to pursue her singing career. "Kelis" is a combination of her father's and mother's names. Kelis' name is pronounced 'Kuh-Leese'.

As a child, she sang in church choirs and played violin, piano, and saxophone while attending a private school. Kelis left home at age thirteen, but continued her education and at age 16 Kelis went to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she formed the R&B trio BLU (Black Ladies United). After graduation, she formed a band with The Neptunes and, with their support, landed herself a record deal.

She has since worked with a variety of musicians including Gravediggaz, Busta Rhymes, Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim, OutKast, P. Diddy, Usher, Moby, Richard X, Timo Maas, Björk, No Doubt, Enrique Iglesias, and Too $hort. Her most notable duets were popular singles and music videos, even in America, during 1999 and the early 2000s decade. These include the following: "What It Is" with Busta Rhymes, "Candy" with Foxy Brown and "Got Your Money" with the late Ol' Dirty Bastard to which she was initially discovered after beatboxing with him in a video.

Her debut album, Kaleidoscope, was not a success in America; it sold only 290,000 copies. Its debut and most notable single, "Caught Out There," peaked at #9 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and became a small MTV/BET video hit. The entire album really took off in Europe, where all three singles, "Caught Out There," "Good Stuff," and "Get Along With You" were sizable hits. Kelis' colorful style in both clothing and hair received considerable attention.

"Caught Out There" entered UK import charts at #52. With its success, it was decided another single should be released. A third single, "Good Stuff," was also a modest hit, securing a number #19 position in the UK charts. In addition, according to BPI, a British music charts organization, Kaleidoscope went gold, selling over 100,000 copies in the UK. Kelis won the Brit Award for Best International Newcomer.

Kaleidoscope's success was largely outside the United States, because Kelis' style of music was not limited to the traditional urban market. American radio was reluctant to accept Kelis since her music didn't fit neatly into any particular genre. Kelis' biggest market was in Europe, where a combination of rap, R&B intermixed with rock and roll, and other genres was more readily accepted. Australia and Asia also turned out to be easier markets for Kelis. The whole album was produced by Pharrell Williams & Chad Hugo (The Neptunes).

Her second album, Wanderland, was released two years later exclusively in Europe and Asia, after its lead single, "Young, Fresh N' New", failed to catch on in America; the video for "Young, Fresh N' New" barely registered on American MTV or VH1, but got pretty heavy play on MTV2. According to Kelis, her and then American record company Virgin did not like the Wanderland album. The record executives at Virgin felt the album material didn't have strong enough singles. Unlike her debut, Wanderland sales were mediocre selling just under 80,000 copies in the United Kingdom. The Whole Album Was Produced By Pharrell Williams & Chad Hugo (The Neptunes)

Kelis, who had moved to Europe during her successful period there, starting the touring with U2 on their European tour and the United States with Moby during his Area:One tour. In America she met and fell in love with rapper Nas and the couple were married on January 8, 2005.

Kelis finally found mainstream success in America in 2003, with her #1 urban, #3 Hot 100 song, "Milkshake"; this helped to propel her third album Tasty to gold status, selling over 540,000 copies in the U.S in only 2 months.

The single and album immediately found success in Europe. According to the BPI, Tasty went platinum in the United Kingdom in October 2004 selling over 300,000 copies. The hit single "Milkshake" went silver in the UK selling over 200,000 units. "Milkshake" was one of the top 10 best-selling singles in UK in the year 2004. The album's second single, "Trick Me", once again proved successful at radio and video channels in Europe and went to the top 10 in many European countries during mid-2004, however the song did not enjoy success in America, where its music video was not released. In addition, Kelis success grew in Australia. The album Tasty went gold in Australia selling over 35,000 copies. "Milkshake" went platinum in Australia selling over 70,000 copies. The second single "Trick Me" was important because The Neptunes were, for once, not involved in its production. Instead, Dallas Austin co-wrote and produced this track. Indeed, although The Neptunes contributed a number of tracks to the album, Kelis began collaborating with other producers such as Austin, André 3000, Rockwilder and Raphael Saadiq producing an altogether more eclectic sound. "Trick Me" also went platinum in Australia selling over 70,000 units. In New Zealand the album Tasty went gold selling over 7000 copies. The Neptunes Only Produced 7 Tracks On The Tasty Album & That Was The End Of The Relationship Between Kelis, Star Trak & The Neptunes

"Not In Love", a collaboration with Enrique Iglesias' from Iglesias' album 7, was also released as a single in 2004 but failed to catch on in America outside of the club charts. Kelis followed her success of "Millionaire" with the Rockwilder produced track, "In Public" featuring her husband, Nas. The track was a UK only release, taking it to #17 with no video for the track. With the success of Tasty, Kelis went on tour as the opening act for Britney Spears' The Onyx Hotel Tour in 2004.

Kelis will be releasing her first single, "Bossy" (featuring Too $hort) from her 2006 comeback album in July 2006. It is achieving frequent airplay on urban radio and is the lead single from her upcoming album Kelis Was Here (originally due to be called The Puppeteer), which is scheduled to be released on July 25, 2006 according to British retailer hmv.co.uk. The album includes production credits by Scott Storch, Raphael Saadiq, Linda Perry, will.i.am, Swizz Beatz and Bangladesh. Kelis will also be part of Busta Rhymes' track "I Love My Bitch", the second single from his latest album The Big Bang. This will be the second time Kelis has teamed up with Busta, with the first time being on his song "What It Is".

Currently, in addition to working on the upcoming album, Kelis is writing a cookbook and designing her own line of fashion accessories.