R&B songstress Keyshia Cole is preparing to make her acting debut in a TV movie about her own life and music career.
During a recent panel discussion, she shared that one of her most successful fan-favorite hits was actually one of the songs that she hated.
After a June 21 screening of the film at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, the 41-year-old singer told Vibe magazine that she hated her single “Love” while writing it because she didn’t feel confident writing ballads.
“I didn’t really think that I was good at writing slow records, but I took my lil CD player and sat in the corner […] and I just wrote the record,” Cole recalled. “Everybody loved it, but I just didn’t like it. I messed up and they said do it again. They kept it. They liked it, but I hated it,” she said of her signature riff in the single.
Related: O.T. Genasis’ Rendition of ‘Love’ Gets Pulled From YouTube, and Fans Know Who Did It
Fans of The Shade Room were surprised and shocked to learn that the “Heaven Sent” singer didn’t like one of her most successful songs.
“Wow. She didn’t like the song,” wrote one. “A reminder to artists that there is probably work you are sitting on right now that’s brilliant but because you aren’t impressed by your own work you hide it. Let that like shine baby!”
Other fans threw shade at the singer. “How you make a biopic starring yourself,” noted one. “S—t is weird to me but I hope y’all stream and support.”
“No shade but we really watched her whole life on them BET seasons that was enough,” said a third. Another added, “Keisha had the 2000s on lock! Best years of my life !!!!”
Cole also confessed that Tony! Toni! Toné! singer D’Wayne Wiggins and his wife helped her early on in her music career with housing.
In “Keyshia Cole: This Is My Story,” Cole plays herself, alongside the legendary Debbi Morgan and “The Cosby Show” actor Joseph C. Phillips. She reportedly said working on film helped her cope with the death of her mother, Frankie Lons.
The Grammy Award-nominated artist had a tumultuous relationship with her mother due to Lons’ drug addiction. However, Lons’ shocking death was felt among many following her overdose while celebrating her 61st birthday on July 18, 2021.
As executive producer of the Lifetime biopic, which premieres at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on June 24, she wrote a new song called “Forever Is A Thing” that will be featured during the film’s closing credits. The song is also reportedly a tribute to her mother who fans were first introduced to back in the early 2000s.
Fans came to know and love Lons on Cole’s reality series, “Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is” back in 2006. The show ran for three seasons on BET. Lons made several attempts to be in her daughter’s life and stay clean including being featured on the reality show “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew” during its fourth season.
Despite Cole’s original dislike for the song, “Love” went platinum on her debut album “The Way It Is.” The music video for the single was featured on BET’s “106 & Park” countdown for 65 consecutive days.
The 2015 track was remixed by rapper O.T. Genasis and titled, “Never Knew,” in 2019. It was well-received by his fans but not by Cole herself. He requested a duet but instead, she threatened to take her song “Love” off the iTunes streaming service.
In an Instagram Live video, she said she understood Genasis’ remake was meant to be “funny as hell.” But when the “Never Knew” music video was taken down from YouTube fans immediately blamed her.
