Kelly Rowland made headlines across the world when she appeared at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. But it wasn’t because of the film at the festival that she was representing.
It had to do with a controversial incident that happened on the red carpet. The media had different takes on who was to blame. Despite this, the alarming moment opened up a conversation about racism in the world of celebrities.
RELATED: Kelly Rowland Crossed the Line
Kelly was at the premiere of the movie Marcello Mio. As she was making her way up the red carpet stairs, cameras caught an interaction between her and one of the Cannes security guards.
The Guard Was Aggressive with Kelly
Entertainment Tonight reported that security was trying to get the stars on the steps to move along quickly. Unfortunately, there were claims that some of the staff were being aggressive. At one point, Kelly was approached by a female security member who tried to usher her up the remainder of the stairs by placing her arm against Kelly’s back.
The guard reportedly stepped on the star’s red gown, so Kelly turned toward her and told her not to worry. But then, the guard must’ve said something back to Kelly which immediately caused her attitude to change.
Whatever she said to Kelly looked like it could’ve been very triggering for her. ET claimed that according to lip readers, Kelly looked back at the security member again and told her not to talk to her ‘like that.’
As they continued up the stairs, Kelly began waving her finger in front of the guard’s face. She continued to show how irritated she was by whatever the woman had told her.
Kelly reportedly repeated to the guard that she shouldn’t talk to her like that. She added that she was not her mother.
An article by The Independent revealed that other event staff then approached the guard, supposedly to tell her to calm down as Kelly moved away and continued up the stairs. The guard was later seen laughing with her colleagues.
Kelly Stood Her Ground
A source for the Daily Mail alleged that the people assigned to help stars walk the red carpet were being aggressive and Kelly was trying to ignore it.
The insider claimed that by the time the singer got to the last woman, she had had it. The woman scolded Kelly and told her to move when she was trying to wave to fans and help the paparazzi get their shot.
According to the source, she wouldn’t care if she came across as a diva because she was advocating for herself. She wasn’t fake and wanted to set a clear boundary.
RELATED: Exposing Kelly Rowland’s Marriage
A few days after the event, Kelly said something similar during an interview with AP Entertainment.
She said, “The woman knows what happened. I know what happened. And, I have a boundary, and I stand by those boundaries, and that is it.”
Kelly also spoke about how she felt like she was being treated differently than other celebrities at the event. She suggested that it might have had something to do with her race.
She claimed that there were other women who attended that carpet who did not quite look like her. They didn’t get scolded or pushed off or told to get off. Kelly added, “I stood my ground and she felt like she had to stand hers but I stood my ground and that was it.”
The Event May Have Been Motivated by Race
The Guardian shared an article about how the incident did appear to be racially motivated. It pointed out that this wasn’t the first time a person of color felt mistreated at the French film festival.
In 2022, movie critic Valerie Complex wrote a piece for Deadline about how she and other Black critics reportedly had to deal with racism while working there. In 2018, 16 black female actors protested on the Cannes red carpet because they felt that the festival did not have enough diversity or inclusion, per Variety.
Yvette Noel-Schure, a well-known publicist who is reportedly friends with Kelly also claimed that the star was treated unfairly because she was African-American. In one of her Instagram stories, she made a comparison between Kelly’s experience on the red carpet and that of Heidi Klum. Heidi was uninterrupted when posing on the steps.
An article by The Hollywood Reporter looked at the incident with Kelly and asked if things would ever change with red carpet mishaps. Some of the outlet’s insiders from Cannes claimed that though they thought the behavior of the festival’s security was troubling, it was also not uncommon. They went on to say that a lot of the security personnel had worked the festival for years and were well-trained.
The sources added that festival attendees were always rushed along the red carpet and up the stairs unless they were actors from the movie premiering or celebrities who were sponsoring the festival. One source told THR that they were used to being treated in an ‘impolite or unpleasant’ way while stopping at various points along the way up to the entrance of the premiere.
The Responses Have Been Mixed
Social media has been divided on who was wrong in the situation. Some of them came to Kelly’s defense and threw shade at the member of security.
A Twitter user said that they liked to support workers at events like that. However, they thought that, in this case, the guard should’ve been fired. After all, she’d visibly laughed with other event staff members after ‘continuously disrespecting’ the singer. Another commentator called the security guard a ‘French Karen.’
But not everyone thought that Kelly was blameless.
In a Reddit thread about the incident, a lot of people were defending the security team at the festival. One of them wrote that the security personnel were just trying to do their job and keep everyone moving. They added that they disliked it when people made it about themselves and got upset when asked to follow instructions.
Somebody else asked why everyone was jumping to defend a millionaire celebrity for yelling at a security woman, who, for all anyone knew, was just doing her job. A third user commented that a middle-aged woman yelling “You’re not my mom!” at a service worker was such an immature way to handle the situation.
Kelly Is No Stranger to Controversy
The Marcello Mio premiere wasn’t the only public event where Kelly caused a media frenzy. Harper’s Bazaar commented on how she and her friend Beyonce both attended Kamala Harris’ campaign rally in Houston.
The outlet wrote that the duo looked professional and polished, wearing outfits that did not distract from their speeches. Beyonce wore a black blazer dress with ‘an exaggerated hourglass silhouette,’ while Kelly sported a deliberately oversized suit.
The women’s outfit choices sparked yet another online debate about how people are treated differently because of their appearance. According to The Root, social media users began arguing among themselves about Kelly’s suit and what it represented.
Some Twitter users commented that Kelly was made to look more masculine for the event because of her darker skin tone, whereas Beyonce’s appearance was more feminine.
One person said that Kelly had been used as a prop for Beyonce’s entire solo career. According to them, she should be tired of looking like a fool. They wrote, “But, apparently she’s not.”
Someone else wrote that it was colorism. They argued that the optics were terrible and purposely designed to make the dark-skin woman appear more masculine. Another Twitter commentator agreed that it screamed colorism and that the dark-skinned woman wasn’t allowed to have her shine.
Kelly Loves Her Oversized Suits
Of course, there were also people who strongly disagreed with those comments. They argued that the ‘real’ colorism was thinking that Kelly didn’t have the free will to choose her own outfits.
One Twitter user claimed that it was offensive that people thought that the singer was so submissive and stupid that she would let other people dim her shine. They added that the ‘actual’ colorism was infantilizing a 43-year-old woman.
Other people thought it was wrong for people to criticize Kelly’s outfit as not being feminine enough for their own personal liking. They also pointed out that she’d chosen to wear suits at a number of different public events.
An online user said that Kelly loved herself an oversized suit. She’d been rocking this signature look at events, red carpets, basketball games, and even as streetwear for a while. They accused the haters of not paying attention to her unless she was dolled up in a certain way or standing next to Beyonce.
