Kelis brings her Milkshake to New Zealand

Kelis performs on the Friday Jams Live tour in Sydney. Photo / Getty

It's been 13 year since her milkshake brought all the boys - and girls - to the yard, storming the charts and making New York singer Kelis a household name.

Since then, she's gone on to release a further three albums and launch a successful career in the food industry; writing a cookbook, hosting the cooking series Saucy and Sweet and releasing her own line of sauces.

"The more things you can find that you enjoy doing, the more enriched your life will be," she says down the line from Sydney, where she's touched down ahead of the Friday Jams tour.

"I mean, I'm a musician. I've been doing music professionally now for the past 20 years. So that's always going to be my life. Doing food is great because it's something to add to it. It's new and fresh. I'm an artist and I need to always be creating and that's inspiring - and inspiring other people. That's the whole idea. That's the goal."

Curiously, her music has often incorporated a foodie theme - with her breakout 2003 album titled Tasty, which spawned the hit single Milkshake. Likewise, her most recent album was called Food, released in 2014.

Kelis became a household name in 2004 when she released Milkshake.

"I never really thought about it but food and music are two of the things that everybody congregates around. I was never planning it but I think food is a really good metaphor for stuff because everybody understands it."

In addition to her burgeoning food empire, Kelis is a busy mother-of-two to 8-year-old Knight and 2-year-old Shepherd.

"They go everywhere with me. They're hanging out - we went to the aquarium today. I promised my eldest we'd go see the glow-worms in New Zealand. It looks pretty cool so we're going to do that."

But don't expect any of her Friday Jams co-stars to join her - according to the singer, everyone is very much keeping to their own schedules.

"Everybody has their own show. You just do your show. No one's working together really. I know it sounds like a lovely concept but it doesn't really work that way. I mean, you probably won't see most people," she explains.

As for what her show will be like - it's still a work in progress.

"I don't really know. I kind of switch it up depending on the vibe. Today's the first official day so I'll get a good sense of what I'm dealing with hopefully and then we'll tweak from there. It just depends on the mood too. Sometimes I'm in the mood to sing certain songs and sometimes not so much. I'm pretty lackadaisical about it to be honest."

LOWDOWN:
What: Friday Jams Live
When: Sunday
Where: Spark Arena
Tickets: From Ticketmaster