  Brandy (Norwood) was born on
February 11, 1979, in Mississippi, and raised
in California. At the tender age of 15,
Brandy burst onto the music scene with her
R&B and pop crossover hit, "I Wanna
Be Down." With her soothing and soulful
voice, Brandy has gained the acclaim of many
critics and fans. Brandy has also allowed her
wholesome image to help her career instead of
presenting a false persona for the sake of
record sales or street credibility. As a
result of being true to herself and her
music, Brandy has been described as a
performer who's stardom will always be on the
rise. Her talents with singing and acting
have already allowed Brandy a step to super
stardom before reaching the age of 20.
Brandy's dream of stardom began when she was
4 years old. She used to study her father's
singing and try to improve her own vocal
skills. She began singing in public at local
youth groups and eventually to high profile
gigs. Her inspirations include Aretha Franklin, Whitney
Houston, and Stevie Wonder for whom she gives
tribute in "I Dedicate."
Even as the music was being
developed, Brandy's acting career began with
a role on Thea. Her appeal
eventually led to a series of her own called Moesha
on UPN, which has been proclaimed a hit with
fans and critics.
 # 44
Singles Artist of the Year
 Brandy's debut LP, Brandy, was released on
Atlantic Records. The tracks on the LP
showcased Brandy's talents for
"soul-drenched r&b with a hip-hop
edge." The LP gave Brandy 2 Top 3 hits
with "I Wanna Be Down" and "Baby" and the
additional hits, "Best Friend" and
Top 10, "Brokenhearted."
Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"I Wanna Be Down."
Brandy topped the Billboard
R&B Singles chart for 4 weeks, the
R&B Singles Sales chart for 2 weeks, and
the R&B Airplay chart for 5 weeks with
"I Wanna Be Down."
Brandy was certified gold and
the single "I Wanna Be Down" was certified
gold.
Brandy hit the Top 10 with "I Wanna Be Down."
 # 12
Singles Artist of the Year
Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"Baby" and the Top 10 by the end of the
month.
Brandy topped the Billboard
Singles Sales chart for 5 weeks, the R&B
Singles chart for 4 weeks, the R&B
Singles Sales chart for 5 weeks, and the Hot
Dance Music Maxi-Singles Sales chart for 4
weeks with "Baby."
Brandy was certified
platinum.
Brandy topped the Billboard
R&B Airplay chart for 4 weeks with "Baby."
The single "Baby" was certified
platinum.
 Brandy was certified 2x
platinum.
Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"Best Friend."
The hits kept Brandy on the
radio and pop charts throughout the year.
Brandy appeared on the Batman
Forever soundtrack with the track
"Where Are You Now" a song written
and produced by Lenny
Kravitz.
Brandy topped the Billboard
R&B Airplay chart for a week with "Best Friend."
Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"Brokenhearted."
The video for "I Wanna Be Down" was nominated
for a MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video, and the video for
"Baby" was nominated
for Best Choreography.
Brandy hit the Top 10 with "Brokenhearted."
Brandy was certified 3x
platinum and the single "Brokenhearted" was certified
gold.
Brandy topped the Billboard
Year-End Chart-Toppers as the Top R&B
Artist - Female (singles & albums), Top
New R&B Artist, and Top Hot R&B
Singles Artist - Female.
 # 24
Singles Artist of the Year
 Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"Sittin' Up In My Room" from the Waiting
To Exhale soundtrack. As for working on
the Waiting
To Exhale soundtrack, Brandy said:
"It was my dream come true to work with Babyface, as well as being
involved in the same project as Whitney
Houston."
Brandy won an American Music
Award for Favorite Soul/R&B New
Artist and was nominated for Favorite
Soul/R&B Female Artist.
 Brandy was nominated for 2 Grammy
Awards for Best
R&B Vocal Performance - Female ("Baby") and Best
New Artist.
The single "Sittin' Up In My Room" was certified
gold and hit the Top 10.
Brandy topped the Billboard Hot
R&B Singles Airplay chart for 2 weeks
with "Sittin' Up In My Room."
Brandy hit #1 for a week with "Sittin' Up In My Room."
The single "Sittin' Up In My Room" was certified
platinum.
 Brandy teamed up with Chaka
Khan, Tamia, and Gladys Knight for
the Top 40 hit "Missing You" from the Set
It Off soundtrack.
The video for "Sittin' Up In My Room" was nominated
for a MTV Video Music
Award for Best Video from a Film and the video for
"Brokenhearted" was nominated
for Best Cinematography.
Brandy was certified 4x
platinum.
Brandy won a NAACP Image Award,
2 Billboard Awards, and 4 Lady of Soul Awards
(including Entertainer of the Year).
Brandy was nominated for an American Music
Award for Favorite Soul/R&B
Female Artist.
Brandy was nominated for 2 Grammy
Awards: Best Pop Collaboration with
Vocals
("Missing You" with Tamia,
Gladys Knight & Chaka
Khan) and Best R&B Performance,
Female ("Sittin' Up In My Room").
 Brandy starred in Cinderella with her idol, Whitney
Houston. Brandy and Houston
demonstrated that when they combine talents
with Disney and a classic story, they're a
hit. Sunday night's airing of the Rodgers
& Hammerstein musical, Cinderella on ABC (on November
2nd) was viewed by over 60 million people in
the U.S. Cinderella, starring Brandy in
the title role and Houston as her fairy
god-mother, was presented by ABC's newly
revamped Wonderful World of Disney.
The presentation helped ABC get their best
ratings in that time slot in over 13 years.
 # 19
Singles Artist of the Year
 Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"The Boy Is Mine" (with Monica) and took home a
Blockbuster Award for Favorite Female Artist
- R&B.
Brandy's sophomore LP, Never
S-A-Y Never, was released and the first
single, a duet with Monica, "The Boy Is Mine" hit #1 on the ARC Weekly Top
40 and the pop and R&B Billboard charts.
She told USA Today, "Your
second album is supposed to do better than
your first one... So I'm a little
scared." Brandy co-wrote 6 of the songs
on her new LP.
 The single "The Boy Is Mine" was certified
platinum.
Never
S-A-Y Never was certified platinum.
"The Boy Is Mine" topped the
Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart for 13 weeks,
the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart for 9 weeks,
the R&B Singles chart for 8 weeks, the
R&B Singles Sales chart for 7 weeks, the
R&B Singles Airplay chart for 5 weeks,
and the Maxi-Singles Sales chart for 21
weeks.
The single "The Boy Is Mine" was certified 2x
platinum.
 Brandy hit the Top 40 with Mase with "Top
Of The World."
Brandy was nominated for 2 MTV Video Music
Awards with Monica for Best R&B Video and Video of the Year ("The Boy Is Mine").
Never
S-A-Y Never was certified 2x platinum.
 Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"Have
You Ever?"
Brandy's acting career is also
on the rise with her feature film debut in
the slasher sequel, I
Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
Brandy starred in a TV movie
with Diana
Ross called Double
Platinum.
 Never
S-A-Y Never was certified 3x platinum.
During the year, Brandy took
home 3 Billboard Music Awards for Top Dance
Maxi-Single, Top 100 Sales Single, and Top
R&B Sales Single, and a Billboard Video
Music Award for Best Clip (R&B/Urban) -
all for "The Boy Is Mine" (with Monica).
Brandy hit the Top
10
with "Have
You Ever?" (which topped the
Billboard Hot 100 Singles Airplay chart for 9
weeks.)
"The Boy Is Mine" was the
top-selling single of the year with sales of
2.6 million.
Brandy topped the Billboard Year-End
Charts
with the Top Hot 100 Single Sales, Top Hot
R&B Single Sales, and Top Hot Dance
Maxi-Singles Sales ("The Boy Is Mine").
 # 20
Singles Artist of the Year
Brandy was nominated for 2 American Music
Awards for Favorite
Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite
Soul/R&B Female Artist.
Never
S-A-Y Never was certified 4x platinum.
Brandy had her 3rd #1 with "Have
You Ever?" (and topped the Billboard
Hot 100 for 2 weeks).
Brandy won her first Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal
Performance by a Duo or Group for "The Boy Is Mine" (with Monica) and was nominated for
Record of the Year, Best R&B Song
(awarded to the songwriter) for "The Boy Is Mine" (with
songwriters Lashawn Daniels, Fred Jerkins
III, Rodney Jerkins, & Japhe Tejeda), and
Best R&B Album for Never
S-A-Y Never.
Brandy won a California Music
Award for Outstanding R&B Album for Never
S-A-Y Never. Brandy was also nominated for
5 NAACP Image Awards (Outstanding Actress in
a Comedy Series for Moesha,
Outstanding Album for Never
S-A-Y Never, Outstanding Duo or Group for
"The Boy Is Mine", Outstanding
Music Video for "The Boy Is Mine" (with Monica), and Outstanding
Female Artist for Never
S-A-Y Never) and 2 Soul Train
Music Awards ( Best R&B/Soul Album,
Female for Never
S-A-Y Never and Best R&B/Soul Single,
Group, Band or Duo for "The Boy Is Mine" (with Monica)).
Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"Almost
Doesn't Count."
Brandy hit the Top
10
with "Almost
Doesn't Count."
 Brandy was nominated for 2 Soul
Train Lady of Soul Awards for Best
R&B/Soul Single, Group, Band or Duo
("The Boy Is Mine" (with Monica)) and Best
R&B/Soul Album, Solo (Never
S-A-Y Never).
Brandy won a 'Teen Choice Award'
for Choice Female Artist.
Brandy was nominated for a MTV Video Music
Award for Best R&B Video ("Have
You Ever?").
Brandy was hospitalized for
dehydration in California and Moesha
filming was temporarily delayed for a few
weeks.
Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"U
Don't Know Me (Like U Used To)."
Never
S-A-Y Never was certified 5x platinum.
Brandy was nominated for an American Music
Award for Favorite
Female Soul/R&B Artist.
Brandy talked about her
hospitalization last November: "It took
me 5 years to get sick. It took me 5 years to
get off track. Dehydration is crazy when you
don't realize what you are doing and you are
working all the time... No... I wasn't
addicted to anything."
Brandy was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best
R&B Vocal Performance - Female ("Almost
Doesn't Count").
Brandy was nominated for a Kids'
Choice Award for Favorite Female Singer.
Brandy was honored with a
Governors Award in LA.
Rolling Stone
& MTV: 100 Greatest Pop Songs includes "The Boy Is Mine" (with Monica) at # 90.
 Brandy's TV series Moesha
was cancelled.
Brandy's voice could be heard in
the film Osmosis
Jones and on the soundtrack with the
track "Open."
 # 18
Singles Artist of the Year
 Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"What About Us?"
Brandy announced she was
secretly married since the summer to a
producer/songwriter and expecting their first
child.
 Brandy's next LP, Full
Moon, was released. The LP debuted
at # 2 on the Billboard 200 Album chart
selling over 155,000 copies in its first
week.
Brandy hit the Top 10 with "What About Us?"
Full
Moon topped the Billboard Hot
R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Full
Moon was certified platinum.
 Brandy hit the Top 40 with
"Full Moon"
Brandy gave birth to a baby
girl. Her pregnancy was chroniclized on the
MTV show Brandy's Special Delivery.
Brandy hit the Top 10 with "Full Moon"
Brandy's video for "What About Us?" was nominated
for a MTV Video Music
Award for Viewer's Choice.
 Brandy could be heard on the
soundtrack for The
Wild Thorberrys Movie with "Danc
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