“She performs the hell out of that song every time,” the Destiny’s Child alum said of the 2011 track, “1+1.”

Kelly Rowland roasts Beyoncé for mispronouncing word in beloved song: ‘I love it though’

"She performs the hell out of that song every time," the Destiny's Child alum said of the 2011 track, "1+1."

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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February 19, 2026 5:38 p.m. ET

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Kelly Rowland and Beyoncé. Credit:

Arturo Holmes/Getty; John Lamparski/WireImage

Kelly Rowland is clocking Beyoncé as only a fellow superstar can.

The "Motivation" singer couldn't help but tease her fellow Destiny's Child alum during a recent appearance on Scott Evans’ YouTube series *House Guest *earlier this month. The call out occurred after Evans read a prompt asking the pair to "sing your favorite love song." Evans then burst into a verse from Beyoncé's 2011 hit, "1+1."

"I don’t know much about algebra," Evans began, only for Rowland to interject with a correction.

"It’s algeb'a," she told him. "She doesn’t pronounce that 'r.'"

Indeed, when Queen Bey belts out the opening verse of her 2011 single, she pronounces the word as "alge-buh," with no "r" included.

While Evans fought to hold in his laughter, Rowland added, "I love it. She don’t say that 'r' for nothing. I love it though. Am I right?"

After Evans sang the verse over, with the Beyoncé-accurate pronunciation of "algebra," Rowland shared some additional thoughts about the track, calling it "so beautiful" and adding, "She performs the hell out of that song every time."

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Still laughing, Evans replied, "You killed me with that. That's not how she said that at all. There's no 'r' in that word."

Not just anyone is bold enough to critique Beyoncé, but Rowland is uniquely suited for the task. In addition to spending several of their formative years onstage together as part of Destiny's Child, the duo remain lifelong friends. In fact, while chatting with Complex Music earlier this month, Rowland confirmed rumors that Beyoncé gave her notes after attending a show on last year's The Boy Is Mine tour.

Kelly Rowland, Beyonce Knowles, & Michelle Williams.

KMazur/WireImage

"Iron sharpens iron," Rowland said simply. "And by the way, *it's Beyoncé*. She's f---ing brilliant, you know what I mean?"

She added that the feedback wasn't exclusive to just Queen Bey, noting that she takes notes from several of the other artists in her life.

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"I keep nothing but iron around me," Rowland explained. "I like the fact that, if it's someone whose opinion I respect and they see that I want the show to be great, they're like, 'Nah, we'll help you get there.' Because I used to be really sensitive. And I didn't give the space for that. Now I'm like, 'No, give me all of it.'"

She continued, "If something can be better, yeah, why not? I don't want to be stagnant, I don't want to be mediocre."

Watch Rowland's full appearance on Evans'* House Guest *above.

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