Posted by Emily Exton on 09/30/2011 at 11:31 AM News

The Popdust Files: bravo, kandi burruss, platinum hit, real housewives, TLC, xscape, xscape

Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss will get her own TV special, Bravo announced Thursday. The Kandi Factory will set out to discover and develop the next pop star, just like the countless other programs on television likely airing right this very moment, yet Bravo hopes the appeal of down-to-earth Burruss, and her impressive musical pedigree will be the difference. “With her breakout personality and straightforward attitude, Bravo fans have grown to love Kandi on The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” said Eli Lehrer, Vice President of Development for Bravo. “The Kandi Factory will capture a unique look at her successful music career as Kandi transforms two music hopefuls into the next big pop star.”

The so-called music by Bravo reality stars generally sucks, but Burruss is one who actually had a career before the cameras arrived—and didn’t feel the need to prematurely sing about the stress of television fame like some others. The singer-songwriter and producer was a former member of girl group Xscape, and went on to win a Grammy Award for writing TLC’s “No Scrubs.” Burruss also is responsible for Destiny’s Child hits “Bills, Bills, Bills” and “Bug-a-Boo,” and released her second solo album Kandi Koated last year, as chronicled on the most reason season of RHOA. So the resume is there, lest her work on Kim Zolciak’s, er, “song” “Tardy For the Party” had you fooled. While the song has been spoofed and chastised for representing the end of humanity at least 12 times over, being a part of Bravo’s guilty pleasure helped open her up to a larger audience, thus making her capable of carrying her own reality show. Bravo’s most recent foray into the music world Platinum Hit didn’t reach the same level of ratings success as the Real Housewives franchise. On The Kandi Factory, Burruss will mentor two hopefuls by focusing on three major factors: the song, the look and the performance, with help from her team of “experts.” Hopefully this includes Mama Joyce.