Kelis reflects on success of ‘Milkshake’ single 20 years later
"Milkshake" is Kelis' biggest single to date, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2003 and earning a Grammy nomination.
In 2003, Kelis released her biggest hit, “Milkshake.” After 20 years, the singer-songwriter says she didn’t expect the song to become such a “big” hit.
Kelis spoke with People about the 20th anniversary of “Milkshake,” the lead single from her 2003 album, “Tasty.” She stated that while it seems like the song was destined to be a smash in hindsight for listeners, it wasn’t so cut and dry at the time.
“I had no idea that it would be big for my career,” Kelis told People. “Milkshake” is Kelis’ highest charting single, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 4 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop chart, and No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart.
The song earned Kelis the first of her two Grammy Award nominations for Best Urban/Alternative Performance and gold certification. However, Kelis went on to say that radio stations didn’t support the Neptunes-produced track initially.
“‘Milkshake’ was a record that when I decided to make it my single and put it out, we couldn’t get radio to play it. There was nothing else like it at the time,” Kelis said. “If you look at music the year prior to that versus music to the year after that, it’s completely different.”
Although Kelis couldn’t have guessed that “Milkshake” would become such a crossover success, she does, however, recognize that it would be an influential record for other artists. It changed the course of music for women and for hip-hop, R&B, it was a real merging in a way that we hadn’t seen before. It changed the rhythm and the cadence of how we did things, especially as female artists.”
Last year, “Milkshake” became a source of controversy involving Kelis, Beyoncé and the Neptunes. Beyoncé used a sample of “Milkshake” for her song “Energy” on the “Renaissance” album. Kelis took the Neptunes – Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo – to task for allegedly not crediting her for writing the song and criticized Beyoncé for not asking her permission.
“My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all 3 parties involved is astounding,” Kelis wrote on social media via Bounty + Full. Ultimately, Beyoncé removed the sample from the song.
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