Kelis Rogers, better known simply as Kelis, is feeling nostalgic. “I wore this,” she says, pulling at her rainbow-striped top, “for my first album and I haven’t worn it since. It still fits, too.”
Kelis grins, not just with the gleeful pride of woman whose dress size hasn’t changed since she was 17, but whose taste remains impeccable. When her Neptunes-produced debut, Kaleidoscope, was released in 1999, Kelis became the byword in sassy soul, her flirtatious-but-feminist sound as vivid and individual as her shock of caramel-coloured hair. The album bagged her a Brit for best international female and initiated a love affair between the UK and the New York-born singer.
Kelis has gone on to have 10 top 10 singles here and sold 6m records worldwide. Having stepped away from her music career in 2008 to retrain as a sous chef, the Cordon Bleu graduate and cookery book author has this summer opened a pop-up restaurant in London – a collaboration with eclectic street food fans Le Bun – and squeezed four shows at the Jazz Cafe in-between six British festival dates. Which is why she’s back wearing her old clothes. “I’m working so much I don’t have time to shop,” Kelis explains.
But despite her hectic schedule – or maybe because of it – the 36-year-old mum of two is in the mood to party. With the skipping EDM of Millionaire turned funky by her five-piece band, Kelis’s breathy voice, which shadows and soothes André 3000’s strung-out urgency on the original single, is given mellow prominence. It’s this restraint that sets Kelis apart from her fellow soul belters and oozes through a medley of Get Along With You, Good Stuff, Glow and Ghetto Children. There’s no mindless emoting or desire to beat down the prominent bass and brass: every note is respectful of its place within a rich blend of street-smart R&B, disco funk and retro pop. When the horn player blasts out a shrill cry, Kelis is as thrilled as the sold-out crowd.
She dances like them, too. Swivelling her hips with a hand in the air, her vocals seem almost an afterthought during Bounce as Calvin Harris’s ministrations are replicated with soul fervour. Kelis’s biggest hit, Milkshake, is stripped of its nursery-rhyme stylings and sung with authority, her curls flicked in time with every horn stamp. There are vibrant shades of Donna Summer for 4th of July (Fireworks) and the heartfelt-yet-fun Acapella, but Kelis explains it’s a very personal song for her. “Standing on a stage for the first time, God, I was so young. I thought: ‘This is crazy, it’s never going to happen.’ I felt I was alone for a long time.”
To prove she’s anything but, Kelis sits on the stage with her back to the jubilant crowd and takes a selfie. Enticed back for an encore by a collective roar of “One more song!” she spoils with two, Lil Star and Baby I Got Your Money, her popularity and style as evergreen as her wardrobe.
• At Jazz Cafe, London, 18 July. Box office: 0844 847 2514. Then touring until 31 July.
