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Kiely Alexis Williams (born July 9, 1986) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, dancer. She is best known for being a member of former girl groups 3LW and The Cheetah Girls.

Biography[]

3LW[]

Each of the girls hail from different backgrounds and their musical influences span a wide spectrum. The initial formation of the 3LW was pulled together by her older sister Michelle Williams, who wanted a singing outlet for Kiely and to make her sister's wishes a reality. She held auditions and hand-picked each member for 3LW and became the manager of the group and 3LW was official.

In 1999, Williams along with Adrienne Bailon, and Naturi Naughton formed the girl group 3LW. 3LW released their first single "No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)" in fall 2000, which became a top 30 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. And the album's next single "Playas Gon' Play" which was released in early 2001. Their debut album, released in 2000, went Platinum.

In the summer of 2002, Naughton left the group due to internal disputes and creative differences (surrounding assault and mistreatment from group member Kiely, and disrespect from group managers in general). The remaining 3LW members released their sophomore album A Girl Can Mack, which sold poorly. 3LW later replaced Naughton with Jessica Benson and briefly attempted a comeback in 2006, with the single "Feelin You'", but the single failed to make impact. Williams and Bailon attempted to participate in both girl groups (The Cheetah Girls and 3LW) but after issues with the release of the record, 3LW was dropped by So So Def and disbanded. Williams, along with Bailon, decided to continue with the current more successful of the two groups The Cheetah Girls full time.

The Cheetah Girls began work on their debut album in January 2006. However, when filming and recording for The Cheetah Girls 2 came up, the album was put on hold. In an interview with Billboard about the postponed album, Sabrina Bryan stated that the girls worked on writing for the album on their Party's Just Begun tour and that they hoped to gather an audience of older fans while simultaneously staying true to their younger fan base. Bryan also stated that the girls would work with producers they've worked with in the past as well as exploring new producers, such as Timbaland.

The album was originally titled Who We Are, and set to be released on June 19, 2007 but this was postponed to September 25, 2007, with a release name of TCG.

The track So Bring It On was released as the album's first single. Fuego was released as the second single from the album. The Girls recorded their own version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas for the holiday compilation album, A Disney Channel Holiday, which was released on October 16, 2007.

The girls began filming their third Cheetah Girls movie, entitled The Cheetah Girls: One World, in March 2008. It is the only movie to not feature Raven-Symoné and premiered on August 22, with its soundtrack released on August 19. The movie debuted with 6.2 million viewers, the lowest-ever rated premiere for the series. In the fall of 2008, the group went on tour to support the One World movie, which would be their last tour together. In January 2009, the group disbanded. The girls are currently pursuing solo projects.

Solo career[]

During the summer of 2008, Kiely began quietly working on a solo singing project, aside from work in her girl group The Cheetah Girls. She filmed the music video for her first single Make Me A Drink in New York City in November 2008. In August 2009, a preview of Kiely's solo debut single "Make Me A Drink" (which was written by Young Money recording artist Shanell (who has also written for Lil Wayne's upcoming record) appeared on Youtube. Later on during the month of October 2009 the official teaser trailer for the video was released almost one year from when the video was originally shot.

She also completed a starring role in the independent film Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale and is slated to star in The Science of Cool, another independent feature that will be released in 2010. More recently, Kiely began work on Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming. The role of Kandi Kane, in Elle, required Kiely to record several songs for the film and the accompanying soundtrack and learn extensive choreography. Stomp The Yard 2 and Elle are slated for a 2010 release. Williams and former Cheetah Girl band-mate and close friend Sabrina Bryan are also collaborating together on a talk show which Williams described as "a young version of The View".

On October 29th, 2009 her official website released the instrumentals of Kiely's second single, titled "Spectacular", a song written by Kiely and produced by Mike City. The single was released exclusively to club DJs the first week on November, and the official release will follow the release of first single "Make Me A Drink". The music video for "'Spectacular" was shot on November 28, 2009 in Annadale, New Jersey. The album is currently scheduled to be released in 2010. Williams is also in talks with major labels to sign a joint deal along with her family's own Nine Lives Entertainment brand, which she has been signed to since 1999.

Filmography[]

Year Title Role Notes

2001

Taina

Leah

TV series, 1 episode.

2003

The Cheetah Girls

Aquanette Walker

Disney Channel Original Movie; filmed in Canada.

2004

The Cheetah Girls

ABC pilot; never picked up.

2006

The Cheetah Girls 2

Disney Channel Original Movie filmed in Barcelona, Spain.

2008

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

Yaffa Waitress

Cameo

The Cheetah Girls: One World

Aquanette Walker

Disney Channel Original Movie filmed in India

The House Bunny

Lily

One of the Zeta Alpha Zeta's

The Suite of Zack and Cody

Herself (with The Cheetah Girls)

Guest star

2010

Elle: A Modern Fairy Tale

Kandi Kane

post-production

Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming

Brenda

in-production

The Science of Cool

TBA

pre-production

Trivia[]

  • Her biological mother died when Kiely was only 7 months old.
  • Has three older sisters and considers her sister Michelle as a surrogate mother.
  • Kiely briefly danced barefoot in the The Cheetah Girls' music video Shake a Tail Feather.

External links[]

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