Kelly Rowland Celebrates Birthday With Beyonce, Bears No Grudge Against Simon Cowell

Kelly Rowland had a familiar face on hand to help ring in her 33rd birthday…none other than Queen Bey herself, Beyonce.

US Weekly posted photos found on Beyonce’s Tumblr account of Kelly Rowland’s 33rd birthday celebration featuring Beyonce and friends.

Rowland, the former X-Factor judge and Destiny’s Child singer can be seen in one photograph catching a piggyback ride from Beyonce and even blowing out candles on an elephant shaped cake in another photo. Beyonce captioned the photo gallery from Kelly Rowland’s birthday with an affectionate “Happy Birthday Sis!” underneath each one. The photos also included Beyonce’s sister Solange Knowles as well.

Kelly rang in her birthday on the East Coast as she was in town for fashion week in New York City. In a recent interview with BBC News, Rowland spoke directly about the recent ending of Simon Cowell’s UK hit X-Factor, that failed to generate the same kind of audience the British version did overseas. But Rowland has no regrets telling BBC News, “It was an incredible experience and I made new friends.”

She goes on to praise the show’s creator Simon Cowell and even offers her take as to why X-Factor just didn’t grab the audience as expected:

“You’ve got to think about the fact that there’s American Idol, The Voice, all these new shows coming up,” Rowland said. “But I have to compliment Simon Cowell because he started it all with American Idol.”

Fox announced on February 7th that they were cancelling the British import created by Simon Cowell. The very same day Simon himself confirmed that he would be returning to be a judge on the UK version of the show.

The ratings for the show plummeted after starting out strong. Facing stiff competition from American Idol and The Voice and after three seasons of rotating panel judges that included Rowland, Demi Lovato and even Britney Spears, the network decided it was time to call it quits on the Cowell led American Idol follow-up.

Kelly Rowland meanwhile, will not be affected much by the show’s cancellation. According to her interview with BBC News, the singer plans to keep very busy over the next few months following New York City Fashion week:

“I actually have Fashion Week, then I’m doing a show in Nigeria,” she said in the interview. “Then I actually get back into the studio.”

When pressed for more information about any forthcoming album, Rowland acknowledged it was too soon to tell. In the meantime, the newly turned 33 year old was busy cutting cake with Beyonce and friends, which, in the end, reinforces what everyone already knows: isn’t so bad being Kelly Rowland.

[Image courtesy of Beyonce Knowles]