The singer, 41, is charged with 14 offenses of child pornography, and faces up to 15 years in jail. He arrived in court, surrounded by associates, more than an hour before the trial began, wearing a blue pinstripe suit and orange and blue tie.
The case concerns a video he is alleged to have made a decade ago showing him having sex with an underage girl. The tape was sent anonymously in 2002 to the Chicago Sun-Times, which had been investigating unrelated allegations involving the star's relations with teenage girls.
According to the prosecution, the 26-minute tape was made between the beginning of 1998 and November 2000, when the girl involved may have been as young as 13.
In her opening statement, prosecutor Shauna Boliker told the jury: "The case will unfold before you, frame by disgusting frame."
The case has been beset by delays after the trial judge fell off a ladder, Kelly had appendicitis, and the lead prosecutor had a child.
The prosecution team will have to prove to the jury beyond reasonable doubt that Kelly is the man in the video, which he denies. More problematic still may be the fact that the girl alleged to be in the film, now 23, also denies that it was her.
Robert Sylvester Kelly, who was born in the poor south side of Chicago, has sold almost 40m records since he was discovered busking. He won a Grammy in 1997 for I Believe I Can Fly, which is seen as his signature tune.
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