When Zel was a 17-year-old aspiring singer, she was eager to meet R. Kelly, she said, and hoped that the R&B star could help jump-start her professional career.

She received his phone number at a music festival and was told she could audition for him, she said. But after she arrived at his hotel, Mr. Kelly was interested in only sex, Zel, who testified under a pseudonym, told jurors as the second week of Mr. Kelly’s criminal trial began in New York.

Zel said that Mr. Kelly told her that he needed to relieve himself sexually before she began to sing. “I was against it — I told him I did not come to please him,” she said. “He continued to persist and told me I didn’t have to do anything, just to take off my clothes.”

As Mr. Kelly’s pressure continued, Zel, who had told him that she was 18, told jurors that she acquiesced and allowed the entertainer to perform a sex act on her. He told her that if she agreed, he would allow her to audition — and would “take care of me for life,” she testified.

“I didn’t necessarily care for that,” she said. “I just wanted to sing.”

As she recounted the story of her first meeting with Mr. Kelly, Zel, who is now 23, became the second accuser to take the stand against Mr. Kelly at the trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. She previously defended the singer publicly as recently as 2019, even as claims against him mounted, but later made her own accusations of sexual and physical abuse. She testified under a pseudonym because of privacy concerns, and her real name does not appear in court records.

Another woman, Jerhonda Pace, told jurors last week that she and Mr. Kelly started a six-month sexual relationship when she was 16 and testified that the artist had physically abused her, including once choking her until she passed out, after she failed to abide by one of the strict restrictions he demanded guests follow.

Several of the artist’s accusers are expected to testify against him during the four-week trial, long anticipated since his sexual conduct came under fresh scrutiny during the height of the MeToo movement.

Mr. Kelly is not charged with felony sex crimes related directly to his accusers. Rather, he faces a broad racketeering case that portrays him as the kingpin of a decades-long operation to recruit women and underage girls for sex by capitalizing on the singer’s fame.

Mr. Kelly, 54, has pleaded not guilty to all nine counts against him, which also include violations of an anti-sex trafficking law known as the Mann Act. He could spend life in prison if convicted.

During the first portion of her testimony on Monday, Zel described first interacting with Mr. Kelly while at a music festival in Orlando in 2015. She attended with her parents, as a 17-year-old junior in high school; Mr. Kelly was in his 40s.

During his performances, Zel said, the singer appeared to direct extra attention toward her. At one point, he gave her a pair of black women’s undergarments. (Mr. Kelly was on his “Black Panties Tour.”)

During the festival, one of Mr. Kelly’s associates approached her with a piece of paper, which had Mr. Kelly’s phone number written on it, she said, warning her “don’t tell anyone” that she had received it. Zel said she later gave it to her mother.

But, she added, both she and her family believed the professional connection could be an opportunity to start her career as an aspiring singer, who at the time was doing paid gigs, performing in school choirs and taking performing arts classes.

A few days later, Zel said she called Mr. Kelly over FaceTime. During the conversation, he told her that she could stop by the hotel where he was staying to audition, Zel said, and she told him she was 18 at the time.

After the school day and attending a meeting with her after-school performance group, Zel traveled alone to the hotel. Outside, Mr. Kelly was waiting in a black van and told her to sit on his lap and give him a kiss.

“I asked him if he was sure,” Zel testified. “He said, ‘Yes.’”

She gave Mr. Kelly a small peck on his check, she said, and they later exited the van to head to his room. That was where Mr. Kelly told her that he needed to relieve himself sexually before she could audition, she said.

Zel told jurors that she offered several reasons explaining why she could not participate. But Mr. Kelly’s requests did not end, she said, and he eventually requested that she “walk back and forth” in his room while wearing only undergarments. She acquiesced, she said, and later agreed when Mr. Kelly asked to perform a sex act on her.

During their interactions, she said that police officers came to the hotel room after her parents, who could not reach her, called for help. (Mr. Kelly, she said, had told her to turn off her phone.) Mr. Kelly grew anxious, she said, and told her to go into the bathroom. When he again inquired about her age, she lied and said she was 18.

The police officers checked her driver’s license, which showed that she was 17, she said. But she testified that they did not appear to be concerned.

They instead handed the singer business cards and told him, she said, that “anytime he was in Orlando and needed security, to let them know.”

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