Keyshia Cole is answering one of the top questions fans had for her during the night of her “Verzuz” battle against Ashanti, which is … why was she an hour late? After the matchup was rescheduled twice, fans had high expectations for the event, which was originally scheduled for Dec. 12. But when Cole arrived on the set an hour late and appeared to have what many people thought was an “attitude,” fans were over the battle before it really began.

On Saturday, Jan. 23, Cole went on Instagram Live with singer and songwriter Elijah Blake to discuss what happened on the night of the event, which took place on Thursday, Jan. 21. Cole kicked off her IG Live discussion by apologizing to her fans for her tardiness. 

She said, “I want to apologize for not sitting my ass in that seat, because I was there and I should’ve sat down. I should’ve just sat in the seat, no matter if I felt like the visual wasn’t clear or they said my music wasn’t gonna be right or whatever it was.”

She later addressed what was transpiring behind the scenes that caused her to be so late. “When I was literally in the back and putting on my last touches, and I’m looking at the video from back in my dressing room, we did it at the studio and I said ‘Why does my picture look so dark?’ Soon as that happened, OT [Genasis, her surprise guest] came back and said, ‘You know they gotta fix the internet connection, because you are going to be experiencing another situation, you know like when Teddy Riley went on.’ You know the picture wasn’t clear, the visual wasn’t clear, the sound wasn’t good. I was really skeptical about that. I was just like, ‘I don’t want to go on and they not see me, and I’m looking blurry, the connection wasn’t right.’ I said ‘Y’all need to fix that first and then I’m going to go out there.’”

The mother of two went on to say that there were additional reasons behind her tardiness, such as technical issues with the sound, but the issue was eventually fixed before she decided to head to her seat. She also noted that she was very nervous while being out there, which may have a lot to do with her noticeably uncomfortable facial expressions. She said, “I was so nervous. When I first went on … oh my god, I was shaking.” She continued, “I done did a million shows, and literally every show that I ever have, when I first go out, I’m always nervous.” 

Toward the end, Cole went live with a fan and hinted that not only will her eighth album be dropping soon, she also might give fans a single first, but “we gon’ see.”