Kelly Rowland Talks ‘Empire’ Role And Dropping Baby Weight

Kelly Rowland will be joining the world of Empire this fall! The 34-year-old R&B singer will appear on the hit FOX series, playing Lucious Lyon’s mother in a flashback.

Kelly met with writers from the show last month, sparking speculation she could make an appearance. Terrence Howard’s character had a number of flashbacks over the first season, and according to reports, Kelly will feature in another.

Rowland joins Chris Tucker and Lenny Kravitz in a VIP line-up of guest stars which also includes Alicia Keys and Marisa Tomei. The second season of Empire premieres September 23rd.

In related news, Rowland hit up the Essence Festival in New Orleans over the weekend, where she was promoting her upcoming reality show Chasing Destiny. The series will chronicle her efforts to put together a new girl group. In between screening auditions for the show with local singers, Rowland stopped by to chat about her favorite foods, her big hair and how she dropped 50 pounds of baby weight.

Rowland’s Food Faves: Acme Restaurant has the most amazing char-broiled oysters I have ever had in my life. You could close your eyes and guess what you want from the menu and it’s all-good.

Rowland’s Big Hair Rules: I wear a curly wig [laughs] but I’m serious. I don’t feel like being bothered. It takes some time to prepare my natural hair. So I just wanted to have a curly Afro this weekend.

Rowland’s Battle of the Baby Weight: I worked out three times a day. I started with trainer Jeanette Jenkins. She started me slow right after I had the baby. It was yoga, Pilates, and then building up to a hard workout. Then we did weights and then running and cardio. She does the most incredible workout called Tread and Shred—I’d do it three times a week.

I swear to you, in three weeks I dropped seven pounds. I didn’t want to rush the weight loss. I didn’t want to starve myself and have it come right back. I wanted to burn it all off. I did SoulCycle three times a week with Angela Davis—she’s a goddess. I did dance classes with Aisha Francis—it’s called a Pump Camp. I did that three to four times a week. We did all these lovely sensual dances where we you don’t realize that you are working your core, legs and butt. She was killing me.