Keyshia Cole deserves all her flowers, and now fans are getting to know her in the most vulnerable way possible.
On Thursday, June 21st, the Bay Area native celebrated the release of her new biopic titled Keyshia Cole: This Is My Story, which releases on Lifetime this Saturday, June 25th. This serves as Keyshia’s long-awaited acting debut, playing herself in the film while detailing her journey from the streets of Oakland to becoming the multi-Platinum selling artist and television personality she is today.
At the end of the screening, a personal note from Keyshia pops up on the screen stating, “Mommy this movie is for you. You will forever be my inspiration.” The biopic showcases Keyshia’s relationship with her mom, who was addicted to crack and struggled to stay sober despite Keyshia’s bubbling career — as well as the fact that Keyshia has no idea who her biological father is.
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Keyshia states, ”I’ve seen the film five times, so I’ve done a lot of crying and reflecting. For the most part, it’s a reflection of my life and my love I have for my mom. Hate that it ended the way that it did. But the truth is, this is my life.”
The “Love” singer also reveals the backstory on how the film came into fruition.
“Lifetime was calling for a little while,” she states. “When I did the VERZUZ, they were reaching out about doing the movie. We didn’t do it at that time. Shortly after, my mom had passed. They reached back out like ‘yo, this is some things that’s happened.’ My dad passed after that, then my dog 14 years passed. Okay, my best friend too? Gotcha. We decided to capture that during that time, but we were trying to do the movies when I first got signed to Interscope. John Singleton, we sat down with him and was supposed to do the movie. That didn’t happen then.”
Keyshia went on to joke that they didn’t hire John Singleton because she wanted to play herself, in which he told her she didn’t have to play herself. She also takes a moment to remember him, stating, “rest in peace John Singleton.”
Attendees were also surprised to hear that Keyshia Cole hated her biggest song, “Love,” when she wrote it.
“I hated it, because I didn’t think that I was really good at writing slow records. But I took my little CD player and sat in the corner, all my friends were drinking. We were in Malibu, I had linked up with some rich chicks out here. They were doing their thing, I sat over there in the corner and I wrote the record. Everybody loved it, but I don’t know. I didn’t like it.”
The craziest part was when Keyshia said the amazing signature riff was an accident. The skip in her voice was a mess up, but she was advised to do it repeatedly.”
