Kelly Cherelle Price (born April 4 1973) is the daughter of Joseph and Clau… Read Full Bio ↴Kelly Cherelle Price (born April 4 1973) is the daughter of Joseph and Claudia Price. Price is the second of three children born and raised in Queens, NY. Under the watchful eye of her mother and the pastorate of her grandparents, Jerome and Joni Norman, Price was nurtured and developed spiritually by being taught the word of God and the importance of a sustained prayer life through the special prayer services her grandfather held weekly in addition to Sunday services and bible study. It was there at an early age in Full Gospel Mission COGIC that the many gifts deeply rooted inside of her were watered and began to grow — her inner senses were awakened to the very real existence of God as more than just a higher power or an answer to the question, “how did we all get here?”.
At an early age, Price's musical talents began to dominate her life. While most babies have to be taken from the crib and calmed from crying in the middle of the night, Price's mother has told of the times when the entire house would be awakened by the sound of a young Price singing out in her crib while the rest of the family tried to sleep. As a young child, Price knew that music was more than just something that happened on the radio, in church, or even during the commercials on TV. For her it was a part of life that quickly became a necessity. She became emotionally dependant on the music inside of her and quickly learned how to use music as an outlet to express what she was feeling even when she couldn’t speak about it. One day after experiencing deep sadness from a book she read for a Black history project in school, Kelly wrote a song to express her unexplainable emotions; this was her first song at only 7 years old.

Price sang on her first recording before the age of 10 and by the time she was 18, Price was recording and touring the world with multi-platinum pop diva Mariah Carey. Always a quick study, Kelly watched and learned the intricacies of studio and production work and soon after began to expand into areas other than just background singing. It was during these early years of her professional career that Price refers to as her formal education. While her classmates attended college to prepare for their careers, she went to work everyday and studied with the entertainment industry’s best to prepare for what would soon be her own music career. During these years and beyond, Price has shared her multiple musical gifts with many artists and reached the number one spot on Billboard several times before anyone even knew what the woman behind the voice and the pen looked like. Throughout her career, Price has sung for, recorded with, toured with, wrote songs for, arranged and produced music for George Michael, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Brian McKnight, LL Cool J, Ben Tankard, Mary J. Blige, Puff Daddy, Brandy, The LOX, Donnie McClurkin, The Williams Brothers, Faith Evans, Karen Clarke-Sheard, Yolanda Adams, MASE, Whitney Houston, Mary Mary, The Notorious B.I.G, Richard Smallwood, R. Kelly, Eric Clapton, Wynona Judd, Gerald Levert, Angela Winbush, The Isley Bros and the legendary Ronald Isley just to name a few. Though many record labels initially pursued Price as a recording artist, it was her connection with Isley and his relentless persistence that convinced her to begin to use her musical talents for herself resulting in a formal alliance between Isley and Price that birthed her solo career with the album Soul of A Woman in 1998 that featured the #1 hit women’s anthem of the year “Friend of Mine”, penned by Price herself.
She would follow with the platinum success of Mirror Mirror in 2000, One Family: A Christmas Album in 2002 and the critically acclaimed Priceless in 2003.
In October 2005, Price recorded her first live gospel project. The This Is Who I Am album was released on October 24, 2006 on her own label, EcclecticSounds Records. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard Gospel Charts and peaked at #9 on the R&B album chart.
Price was inducted as an honorary member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. in July 2006.
In early 2007, Price kicked off a tour with the "Sisters in the Spirit 2007".
In 2006, she recorded the song "Why?" for the soundtrack Why Did I Get Married?, a film version of the stage play of the same name she once acted in, playing the role of Sheila.
In early 2009, Price was featured on Coko's gospel album entitled The Winner In Me on the track "Oh Mary".
In June 2010, Price promoted her single "Tired" on The Jazz Joy and Roy syndicated radio show as "some of the best work of my career to date."
In September 2009, it was announced she would be joining Deborah Cox and Tamia to form the super group The Queen Project. The women seek to empower women of all ages, races and backgrounds by doing a number of community service projects. In September 2010, Kelly announced via her official Twitter profile that her new solo album Kelly will be released in 2011. Her second single "Not My Daddy" debuted on R&B charts at #87.

Just As I Am
Kelly Price Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I would cry thought no one loved me
Life was just so unfair
If I died things would be better
Maybe no one would care

All alone this ugly duckling
Hung my head down in shame
Wondered why I was created

Til you called out my name

But Lord you made me
Just how you wanted me to be
Shapen in the image of you

Had to fight always a battle
Going on in my mind
On my own had to survive it
Was this all to my life?

Didn't think in had a purpose
Didn't fit in the crowd
Didn't know you made me special
And that you picked me out

And Lord you made me
Just how you wanted me to be
Shapen in the image of you

I'm so thankful

Somebody told me you loved me
Now I'm living my life brand new

Overall Meaning

"Just As I Am" by Kelly Price is a powerful song that speaks to the challenges and struggles that many people face in their lives. The lyrics are about feeling unloved, unwanted, and like an outcast. The singer of the song has been going through a lot of difficulties in her life, and she feels like nobody cares about her. She even wishes she were dead because she thinks that things would be better if she weren't around.

However, she then has a moment of realization, where she realizes that God made her just as she is for a reason. She is not an ugly duckling, but rather perfectly created in the image of God. She begins to understand that her life has a purpose, even though she may not feel like she fits in with the crowd. She is grateful that someone told her that God loves her, and she is now living her life with a renewed sense of purpose and meaning.

The lyrics are truly inspiring, and they speak to the experiences of many people who may feel like they are unworthy or unlovable. The message of the song is that no matter what struggles we face, we are all perfectly created in the image of God, and our lives have value and purpose.

Line by Line Meaning

I would cry thought no one loved me
I used to cry because I felt like no one loved me

Life was just so unfair
I felt like life was really unfair

If I died things would be better
I thought that if I died, things might be better

Maybe no one would care
I worried that no one would care if I died

All alone this ugly duckling
I felt alone and like an ugly duckling

Hung my head down in shame
I walked around with my head down in shame

Wondered why I was created
I questioned why I was created

Til you called out my name
Until you called out my name and showed me love

But Lord you made me
God, you made me

Just how you wanted me to be
Exactly how you intended me to be

Shapen in the image of you
Made in your image