BRANDY

Brandy Biography

Brandy Rayana Norwood (born February 11, 1979), known professionally as Brandy, is an American actress and R&B and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer. Discovered by Atlantic Records when she was a member of a youth singing group, she released her self-titled debut album in 1994 at the age of fifteen. Following a major success with "The Boy Is Mine," a duet with singer Monica for which she won a Grammy Award, and her second album Never Say Never in 1998, a series of hit records established her position as one of the most successful of the new breed of urban R&B female vocalists to emerge in the mid-to late 1990s. While maintaining a recording career Norwood also gained fame for starring in several film and television productions, including popular UPN sitcom Moesha (1996-2001), a 1997 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and a supporting role in the 1998 horror sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer among others. The RIAA ranks Norwood as one of the best-selling female artists in American music history having sold over 10.5 million albums in the United States. Childhood Brandy is the elder of two siblings born to Willie Norwood, a former R&B singer and choir director, and his wife Sonja Bates-Norwood, a former district manager for H&R Block, in McComb, Mississippi. She is the sister of singer and actor William Raymond "Ray J" Norwood Jr, and a cousin of blues singer Bo Diddley, and rapper Snoop Dogg. Through her father's work Brandy started singing at their minister, Curtis W. McCullom's Brookhaven church at an early age of two. By the time she was four, Norwood's parents moved the family from McComb to Carson, California, in hopes of jump-starting careers for their children. Inspired by a spontaneous onstange performance with Diddley and Little Richard in the Los Angeles Forum at the age of six, Brandy began performing at many West Coast functions as part of a youth singing group and then, at 11, barely a teenager herself, met manager Earl Harris and Chris Stokes who landed her gigs as a backup singer for the group called Norment and more successful teen R&B trio Immature.[4] In 1993, while shopping around record companies, seeking a record deal, Norwood attended a party held by the Atlantic Recording Corporation. After performing in front of hundreds of people, an executive indicated interest in her persona and eventually offered Brandy a recording contract with Atlantic Records. 1994�1997: Early commercial success After months of recording, including sessions with producers Daryl Williams, and Keith Crouch, Brandy's self-titled debut album was released on September 27, 1994. While the album debuted at a moderate number 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart only, Brandy soon became a quadruple platinum success thanks to heavy rotation on music channels MTV and BET and the singles "I Wanna Be Down" and "Baby" which both entered the top 10 of the official Hot 100 and became number-one hits on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop chart. Although the album's success was limited elsewhere, it produced another two top 10 hits and made Brandy one of the most successful new artists of the year. Subsequently the album earned Norwood two Grammy Award nominations for "Best New Artist" and "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" (for her single "Baby"), four Soul Train Music Awards, two Billboard Awards, and the New York Children's Choice Award. Brandy continued to soar in 1995, teaming up with Lenny Kravitz for the Batman Forever soundtrack and scoring another hit with her number-two single, "Sittin' up in My Room" from the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. In 1996, Brandy teamed up with Tamia, Chaka Khan, and Gladys Knight, for the single "Missing You," released from the Set It Off soundtrack. While not her biggest hit, the single did peak at number 25 on the pop chart, and Norwood received her third Grammy nomination in the "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" category. 1998�2001: Worldwide popularity Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins consulted on the album Never Say Never, which was released on June 9, 1998 and became Brandy's most successful album worldwide. Norwood co-wrote and produced six songs on the album which yielded her first number-one song on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, "The Boy Is Mine", a duet with singer Monica. The song rose to one of the most successful records of the year, staying on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for thirteen weeks, and eventually garnered the pair a Grammy Award for "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal". Critics rated Never Say Never highly, with All Music Guide's Stephen Thomas Erlewine praising Brandy and her team for wisely finding "a middle ground between Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige � it's adult contemporary with a slight streetwise edge". Altogether the album spawned seven airplay and CD singles respectively, including Norwood's second number-one song, Diane Warren written "Have You Ever". For the next three years, Brandy completed the remaining three seasons of her sitcom Moesha and starred in a number of widely successful and critically acclaimed television specials and movies. She also landed a multitude of endorsement deals with CoverGirl cosmetics, which she represented for several years. Brandy was the subject of a major advertisement campaign for DKNY Jeans for three seasons, and modeled Candies shoes in an ad campaign photographed by David LaChapelle. After a lengthy hiatus that saw the end of her Moesha television series, and a flurry of tabloid headlines discussing her bout with "dehydration", Brandy returned with a 2001 remake of Phil Collins' 1980s hit "Another Day in Paradise", a collaboration with brother Ray J. Released as the lead single from Urban Renewal: A Tribute to Phil Collins, the song became an instant international hit. 2002�2003: New image During the production of her third studio album, Norwood became romantically involved with producer Robert "Big Bert" Smith. The couple quietly "married" in the summer of 2001 but their union did not become known until February 2002 � the same month Norwood revealed that she was expecting her first child. However, shortly after the birth of their daughter Sy'rai Iman Smith on June 16, 2002 � an event tracked by the four-part MTV reality series Special Delivery � Norwood "divorced" Smith. The "marriage" itself was later exposed as not of legal status but instead was used as a ruse to protect Brandy's image. Norwood later stated that she regarded her relationship with Smith as a "spiritual union and true commitment to each other". Full Moon, Norwood's third studio album, was released in March 2002. It once again comprised a row of R&B/Pop-oriented songs with adult contemporary, many of them co-created with Jerkins, Warryn Campbell and Mike City. While its lead single "What About Us?" became a worldwide top 10 hit, the album's title track failed to chart or sell noticeably outside the United States and the UK, where it managed to enter the Top 20 of the single chart. Media reception was generally lukewarm, with Rolling Stone Magazine saying that, "... this interminable (seventeen-track) product is frantic, faceless, fake-sexy R&B." Still, the album was rather quietly and cautiously declared as a flop by the media. Brandy ignored the rumblings and instead settled further into motherhood. She began writing and producing for other artists, such as Kelly Rowland, Tarralyn Ramsey, and Toni Braxton within the coming year. Book Brandy for shows and concerts at Heavy Rotation booking agency. Worldwide Bookings with HR Booking. Brandy Booking, Book Brandy. Book artists like Brandy, Brandy booking agent, contact Brandy email, Brandy manager, Brandy management for concerts, bookings, biography, pictures, videos. Brandy may be available for your club shows, private party, festivals or other events.

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