Brandy Norwood
Brandy Rayana Norwood is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her intricate vocal riffs, and is regarded as an influential figure in contemporary R&B.
Born into a musical family in McComb, Mississippi, Brandy was raised in Carson, California, where she began her career as a backing vocalist for youth music groups. After signing to Atlantic Records, she rose to prominence in the mid-1990s with her debut album, Brandy, which spawned the US Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles "I Wanna Be Down", "Baby", and "Brokenhearted". She became a television star with her lead role on the UPN sitcom Moesha and portrayed Cinderella in the television film Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella.
Brandy's best-selling second album, Never Say Never, yielded two US number-one singles: "The Boy Is Mine" and "Have You Ever?". The former, a duet with Monica, spent thirteen weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and won both artists their first Grammy Award. Brandy ventured into more experimental sounds with the electronic-infused Full Moon and the ambient-inspired Afrodisiac. She served as a judge on the first season of America's Got Talent in 2006 and explored pop on her fifth album, Human. In 2010, Brandy returned to television as a contestant on the eleventh season of Dancing with the Stars.
Brandy's sixth album, Two Eleven, contains a hip-hop–oriented production. She made her Broadway debut in 2015, portraying Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago, and released her seventh album, B7, and her first Christmas album, Christmas with Brandy. Her worldwide sales exceed 40million records, and she is the recipient of a Grammy Award and an American Music Award.
Early life
Brandy Rayana Norwood was born on February 11, 1979, in McComb, Mississippi, the daughter of Willie Norwood, a gospel singer and choir director, and Sonja Norwood, a district manager for H&R Block. Norwood is the older sister of entertainer Ray J. Through their mother, the two are third cousins of guitarist and singer Bo Diddley. Rapper Snoop Dogg has claimed that he and Norwood are cousins, though Norwood has stated she is unsure if they are actually related. She is also reported to be a cousin of wrestler Mercedes Moné and rapper Daz Dillinger.Raised in a Christian household, Norwood started singing through her father's work as part of the choir at Southside Church of Christ, performing her first gospel solo at the age of two. In 1983, her parents relocated to Carson, California, where she was schooled at Bancroft Junior High School and later attended the Hollywood High Performing Arts Center. Norwood's interest in music and performing increased after becoming a fan of singer Whitney Houston at the age of seven, but at school, she experienced trouble with persuading teachers to send her on auditions as she found no support among the staff.
Norwood began entering talent shows by the time she was eleven, and, as part of a youth singing group, performed at several public functions. In 1990, she signed with Teaspoon Productions, headed by Chris Stokes and Earl Harris, who gave her work as a backing vocalist for their R&B boy band Immature and arranged the production of a demo tape. In 1993, amid ongoing negotiations with East West Records, Norwood's parents organized a recording contract with the Atlantic Recording Corporation after auditioning for Darryl Williams, the company's director of A&R. To manage her daughter, Norwood's mother resigned from her job, while Norwood herself dropped out of Hollywood High School, and was tutored privately from tenth grade onward.
Career
1993–1997: ''Brandy'' and television stardom
During the early production stages of her debut album, Norwood was selected for a role in the short-lived ABC sitcom Thea, portraying the daughter of a single mother played by comedian Thea Vidale. Initially broadcast to high ratings, the series' viewership dwindled and ended up running for only one season, but earned her a Young Artists Award nomination for Outstanding Youth Ensemble alongside her co-stars. Norwood recalled that she appreciated the cancellation of the show as she was unenthusiastic about acting at the time, and the taping caused scheduling conflicts with the recording of her album. She stated, "I felt bad for everybody else but me. It was a good thing, because I could do what I had to do, because I wanted to sing."Norwood's self-titled debut album was released in late September 1994 and peaked at number 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Critical reaction to Brandy was generally positive, with AllMusic writer Eddie Huffman declaring Brandy "a lower-key Janet Jackson or a more stripped-down Mary J. Blige with good songs and crisp production." Anderson Jones of Entertainment Weekly asserted, "Teen actress Norwood acts her age. A premature effort at best, that seems based on the philosophy 'If Aaliyah can do it, why can't I?'." Brandy produced three top ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including "I Wanna Be Down" and "Baby", both of which reached the top of the Hot R&B Singles chart and were both certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. "Brokenhearted", a duet with Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men, became a number 2 hit on the charts. The album earned Norwood two Grammy Award nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance the following year, and won her four Soul Train Music Awards, two Billboard Awards, and the New York Children's Choice Award. In 1995, she finished a two-month stint as the opening act on Boyz II Men's national tour, and contributed songs to the soundtracks of the films Batman Forever and Waiting to Exhale, with the single "Sittin' Up in My Room" becoming another top-two success. In 1996, Norwood also collaborated with Tamia, Chaka Khan, and Gladys Knight on the single "Missing You", released from the soundtrack of the F. Gary Gray film Set It Off. The single won her a third Grammy nomination in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category.
In 1996, her short-lived engagement on Thea led Norwood to star in her own show, the UPN-produced sitcom Moesha. Appearing alongside William Allen Young and Sheryl Lee Ralph, she played the title role of Moesha Mitchell, a Los Angeles girl coping with a stepmother as well as the pressures and demands of becoming an adult. Originally bought by CBS, the program debuted on UPN in January 1996, and soon became their most-watched show. While the sitcom managed to increase its audience every new season and spawned a spin-off titled The Parkers, the network decided to cancel the show after six seasons on the air, leaving it ending with a cliffhanger for a scrapped seventh season. Norwood was awarded an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Youth Actor/Actress for her performance. In 1997, Brandy, Ray J, and their parents started The Norwood Kids Foundation, which helps disadvantaged, at-risk youths in Los Angeles and Mississippi through the arts and self-help programs.
1997–2001: ''Never Say Never'' and film career
In 1997, Norwood was hand-picked by producer Whitney Houston to play the title character in Rodgers and Hammerstein's television version of Cinderella featuring a multiracial cast that also included Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, and Houston. The two-hour Wonderful World of Disney special garnered an estimated 60 million viewers, giving the network its highest ratings in the time period in 16 years, and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program the following year.Fledgling producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins was consulted to contribute to Norwood's second album Never Say Never. Norwood co-wrote and produced six songs for the record, including her first number 1 song on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, "The Boy Is Mine", a duet with singer Monica that has become the most successful song by a female duo in the music industry. Exploiting the media's presumption of a rivalry between the two young singers, the song was one of the most successful records in the United States of all time, spending a record-breaking thirteen weeks atop the Billboard charts, and eventually garnering the pair a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Never Say Never was released in June 1998 and became Norwood's biggest-selling album, reaching number 2 on the Billboard 200. Critics rated the album highly, with AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine praising Norwood 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 singles, including Norwood's second number 1 song, the Diane Warren-penned "Have You Ever?" To promote the album she went on the Never Say Never World Tour in 1999, consisting of shows in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
After backing out of a role in F. Gary Gray's 1996 film Set It Off, Norwood made her big screen debut in the supporting role of Karla Wilson in the slasher film, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. The movie outperformed the original with a total of $16.5 million at its opening weekend, but critical reaction to the film was largely disappointing, with the film review site Rotten Tomatoes calculating a poor rating of 7% based on 46 reviews. Norwood, however, earned positive reviews for her "bouncy" performance, which garnered her both a Blockbuster Entertainment Award and an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Breakthrough Female Performance. In 1999, she co-starred with Diana Ross in the telefilm drama Double Platinum about an intense, strained relationship between a mother and daughter. Shot in only twenty days in New York City, both Norwood and Ross served as executive producers of the movie which features original songs from their respective albums Never Say Never and Every Day Is a New Day, as well as previously unreleased duets. The same year, Norwood headlined VH-1's Divas Live '99, alongside Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, and Cher.
After a lengthy hiatus following the end of Moesha, and a number of tabloid headlines discussing her long-term battle with dehydration, Norwood returned to music in 2001, when she and brother Ray J were asked to record a cover version of Phil Collins' 1990 hit "Another Day in Paradise" for the tribute album Urban Renewal: A Tribute to Phil Collins. Released as the album's first single in Europe and Oceania, the song became an instant international success overseas, scoring top-ten entries on the majority of all charts it appeared on. Norwood also contributed the Mike City track “Open” to the soundtrack from Osmosis Jones. The track remained unavailable on digital download and streaming sites until its rerelease twenty years later on October 8, 2021.