Kelly Rowland insists that “everybody deserves grace” after defending Chris Brown at the AMAs

Though the people involved probably wish this weren’t the case, one of the most/only notable things to come out of the American Music Awards on Sunday was a moment when Chris Brown—who was not there—won Favorite Male R&B Artist. Presenter Kelly Rowland accepted the award on his behalf, at which point some people in the crowd started booing and (as Variety describes it) making “unclear shouts,” and she responded, “excuse me, chill out” before monologuing a bit about how Brown is an “incredible performer” and how she wanted to thank him for his “great music.”

Chris Brown, of course, pleaded guilty to felony assault for attacking Rihanna in 2009, model Karrueche Tran got a permanent restraining order against him in 2017, and this year he was sued for $20 million for allegedly drugging and raping a woman.

Today, TMZ caught up with Rowland (via Variety), and she seemingly reiterated her apparent support for Brown, saying, “I believe that grace is very real, and we all need a dose of it, and before we point fingers at anybody, we should realize how grateful we are for every moment we get.” She added, “We all need to be forgiven for anything that we could be doing—we all come up short in some sort of way. Grace is real, and we are humans, and everybody deserves grace, period.”

To be fair to Kelly Rowland, she’s not the one who chose to give Chris Brown an award, she was just the one presenting it (and then telling everyone to stop booing), because celebrities are rarely the most impartial source when it comes to other celebrities being criticized, so whatever. Either way, maybe the next awards show that wants to give some kind of award to Chris Brown will think twice before going through with it.