KELE LE ROC

Kele Le Roc was born Kelly Biggs in Mother's Hospital, Hackney, East London. Her Jamaican mother was a clothes designer and her England born father, a dancer and model. It was obvious from an early age that kelly had a penchant for all things musical. “My earliest memory” says Kele “was when I was about 3 years old. I was watching a musical on the telly and the Nicholas brothers were tap dancing. I remember trying to copy them. From that day my mother decided to send me to dance school. Kele loved dancing and had dreams of performing in the West End and on Broadway. Singing obviously went hand in hand with this, but at the age of 12 Kele suffered a bad knee injury. This incident propelled Kele into focusing more intently on her singing.

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The first song she ever recorded was a cover version of the Rose Royce song ‘Its Over’. It wasn't long before Kele was writing and recording her own material. She found a musical home with production team ‘Best Kept Secret’. It was the first time that Kele had worked with producers that she felt understood her musically and where she wanted to go with her sound. It was also where she would get the name Le Roc. “My engineer, Digital, named me Le Roc. There was no Mr Biggs or Biggy Smalls yet so Kelly Biggs just didn't sound right at the time.” says Kele. The sound that they would create together led to the white label release of underground hit “Let Me Know” and got the attention of major labels. At the time 16 year old Kele was continually on tour supporting US Artists like Total, Horace Brown and Mona Lisa whilst studying performing arts at Epping Forest College. The two main contenders were First Ave and Sony Records in Chicago. Sony records in London had referred her as they felt her American sound and look would be more suited to that market.

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Kele decided not to go to Chicago and pressed on with her career in London with notorious music duo “First Ave.” Kele was signed to them in 1996 and Licensed to Polydor Records in 1997. Kele also spent 3 months in Los Angeles co writing and recording her first album “Everybody's Somebody”. 

Kele worked with other talented artists and explored other genres of music. Artists like Courtney Pine, Omar, Masters at work, Estelle, Todd Edwards, Delinquents, Lemar, Sticky, Fundamental, Shola Ama, Shy Fx, JD aka Dready, Agent X, Roni Size, Cassius Henry, Space Cowboy, Damage and in 2001 released world wide smash “Romeo” with Basement Jaxx.

“It's ridiculous, but a few people were up in arms about me singing different genres. As far as I'm concerned God gave me a voice to sing - he didn't give me limitations. I'm a soul singer and love all types of music that I sing from my soul. Ironically enough, the garage remix of ‘My Love’ is my biggest hit to date and is still regularly requested.

Kele decided to add a few more strings to her bow and branched out into presenting and acting. Kele's skilful dance moves had a cult following on Channel 4’s late night hit “bustamove” and she has starred in MTV's Dubplate drama and indie films such as Rewind and Dirty Money 2. She Lived her original dream of starring in musicals touring the world as a principal in Spirit produced smash ‘I Can't Stop Loving You’ – about the life of Ray Charles. She runs and designs her own female club wear clothing Line “Funkin Bytch” and jewellery Line Glam Roc! Both available via mail order and in selected stores. These all seemed like natural progressions to Kele as she saw it as just doing things that she enjoys already on a daily basis.

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So what does 2023 hold? Kele is excited to share her new music with you. She spent much of 2022 in the studio with big names such as DJ Roger Sanchez and Donaeo to name just a few, and turned her hand to more acting roles, her face is a frequent in the latest HeyCar advert. Kele is also one of the entrepreneurs in a brand new reality show “ No HouseWives in The South” coming soon to a screen near you. Her new podcast and documentary series penned “A conversation about” touches upon more grown and poignant issues. Catch her on a uk tour with the “Garage AllStars” “House and Garage Orchestra” and “Garage Classical”.