Kelly Rowland had a full-circle daddy-daughter moment at her tour stop in Atlanta!

The singer dedicated a song to her father, a relationship she called “rebuilt” after more than 30 years apart. Rowland paused her set to point out her father, Christopher Lovett, in the crowd and sang, “I love and need and want you, daddy,” dedicating her song “Dilemma” to him as fans and family looked on. The sweet moment was captured and shared on social by Mama Tina Knowles.

Rowland has been transparent about the long estrangement between her and her father. She said she hadn’t spoken to him for three decades and that they reconnected privately in 2018 after she became a mother. “It was time to meet him,” she told the “Mama I Made It” podcast about finally opening the door to a relationship. The reunion followed years in which Rowland, who was raised primarily by her mother, admitted she once instructed security to keep him out of venues because of the pain his absence caused. 

Rowland said the reconciliation was rooted in a desire to heal for her children's sake. She said she took advice from friends and elders (including a story about Jay-Z urging her that love requires risk) before letting her father back into her life. In recent years, she’s spoken about forgiveness as an ongoing, sometimes messy process that ultimately brought relief and new closeness. 

Like Rowland said, “it’s never too late!”