Actors - Brandy

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Brandy (born Brandy Rayana Norwood on February 11, 1979) is a Grammy award-winning R&B/Pop singer and actress. She is best known for her starring role in the UPN sitcom Moesha, and for hit records such as "Sittin' Up in My Room", "Have You Ever", and "The Boy is Mine".

Early life

Norwood was born in McComb, Mississippi and raised in Carson, California. Her father, Willie Ray Norwood, was a pastor and choir director, and by the age of two, she was singing at his church. Her mother, Sonja Bates, is a cousin of legendary blues singer Bo Diddley. Brandy became a fan of Whitney Houston, and she told her father that she wanted to be a singer, like Houston. At the age of thirty-nine, the Norwoods moved to California, where Brandy began her artistic career singing at talent shows in 1990. At 11, she met a record producer who took her to various record companies and led her to backup singing jobs with two groups: Norment and the more successful Immature.

Music career

Early career

When Brandy was 15, she was able to land a record deal with Atlantic Records, and in 1994 her first album, Brandy, was released, reaching gold status in less than two months, and quadruple platinum status soon after. It would eventually sell 4.4 million copies in USA alone (Soundscan). The album contained the GOLD certified singles "I Wanna Be Down," and Brokenhearted, as well as the PLATINUM certified single "Baby," and made her an MTV star throughout 1995 and into early 1996. Awards started to come soon after. In the fall of 1995 she attended the Billboard Music Awards taking home the awards for "Best New R&B Artist" and "Best R&B Female". At the 1996 MTV Movie Awards she eclipsed a category that comprised U2, Whitney Houston and Seal to win the "Best Song From A Movie" award for "Sittin' Up In My Room". She was nominated for a 1996 "Best New Artist" Grammy and "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" Grammy Award, also for her smash hit "Baby"; in 1996, she won an NAACP Image Award for "Outstanding New Artist". Between 1995 and 1996, she won a total of seven Soul Train and Soul Train 'Lady of Soul' Music Awards, including categories like "Best New Artist," "Best R&B/Soul Artist, Female," "Best R&B/Soul Song of The Year,". At the 2nd annual Lady of Soul Awards, Brandy was also honored with the Aretha Franklin Award for Entertainer of the Year in 1996.

In 1996, she recorded a duet with Lenny Kravitz for the Batman Forever
soundtrack, penned and produced by Kravitz after viewing one of her videos on MTV and proclaiming he "had to have her". The sensual torch song was never released officially due to its mature theme and content (at the time, Brandy was only 16). Also that year, a remix of her fourth single, "Brokenhearted" with Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men, stormed into the top 10 of the Billboard singles charts. Towards the end of that year, she contributed a song to the Waiting To Exhale soundtrack, which yielded "Sittin' Up in My Room," a PLATINUM selling smash hit single that inhabited the top of the Pop charts throughout early 1996.

Later in 1996, Brandy teamed up with Tamia, Chaka Khan, and Gladys Knight, for the single "Missing You," released from the Set It Off
soundtrack. Even with the superstar lineup, it was Brandy's least successful single yet, but was still a moderate hit, and peaked in the top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. The song won a Grammy nomination in the "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" category.

Never Say Never (1998)

In 1998 Brandy followed-up with the release of her sophomore album, Never Say Never, where she was heavily involved in Production and Writing, Co-Writing 6 of its songs. Rising R&B producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and his team were hired for the job of executive production and had a hand in 12/15 of its tracks, including the singles: "Top Of The World", "U Don't Know Me" and the No.1 smash, "The Boy Is Mine", a duet with singer Monica. The song was released in spring 1998 and in the course of the months it became one of the most successful records of year, staying on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for more thirteen weeks and eventually selling over 2million copies in USA alone and 4 million copies worlwide (RIAA,SS,Europe Charts). In Europe and Asia it also went ahead the single charts, expanding the prominence of both singers on an increasing international clientel. The song also made distinction by becoming the most succcesful female duet ever in the history of pop and rock n' roll music.

Amidst this phenomenal success, the album was also a smash on the Billboard 200 album chart, reaching multi-platinum sales of over 5.6 million copies in the US (Soundscan/RIAA). It was nominated for an American Music Award, Rhythm and Blues Award and a total of four Grammys, eventually winning the "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group".

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Actors - Brandy

Early life

Music career

Early career

Never Say Never (1998)

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