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Monica Denise Arnold (born October 24 1980), professionally known as Monica, is a Grammy Award-winning American R&B singer, songwriter, composer and occasional actress. She debuted in 1995 under the guidance of Rowdy Records head Dallas Austin and became the youngest recording act to ever have two consecutive chart-topping hits on the U.S. Billboard Top R&B Singles chart. Following a major success with "The Boy Is Mine", a duet with singer Brandy, 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. Her popularity was in decline between the early 2000s, during which time she dealt with more personal tribulations including the suicide of her boyfriend Jarvis "Knot" Weems, an up-and-down relationship with former fiancé Corey "C-Murder" Miller and the delay of her heavily-bootleged third album, All Eyez on Me. In 2003 Monica eventually released After the Storm, and after an unsuccessful period, she returned to the forefront of R&B music with her sixth number-one hit "So Gone".
BiographyEarly lifeArnold was born in Oak Park, a division of Atlanta, Georgia. She is the eldest child of Marilyn Best, a former church singer and Delta Air Lines customer service representative, and M.C. Arnold Jr., a mechanic, working for an Atlanta freight company.[1] She has one brother named Montez (born 1983), and two maternal half-brothers, Tron and Cypress. Arnold is also a cousin-in-law of Atlanta rapper Christopher Brian Bridges, better known as Ludacris.[2] At the age of two Arnold followed her mother's reputation with regular performances in public at the Jones Chapel United Methodist Church. While growing up in the modest circumstances of a single-parent home, after her parent's separation in 1984 and their divorce in 1987, Monica continued training herself in singing. She became the youngest member of Charles Thompson and the Majestics, a traveling 12-piece gospel choir, by the time she was 10.[3] Monica also became a frequent talent show contestant, winning over 20 local singing competitions throughout her early teenage years. 1991—1996: Career beginningsImage:Why I Love You So Much (sceenshot).jpg Monica in the video for her third consecutive top 10 hit "Why I Love You So Much" (1996). In 1991, at the age of eleven, Arnold was discovered by music producer Dallas Austin at the Center Stage auditorium in Atlanta. Amazed by her voice, Dallas offered her a record deal with his Arista-distributed label Rowdy Records and immediately hired rapper and actress Queen Latifah as Monica's first manager. Shortly afterwards Dallas and Arnold entered the studio to start writing and producing her debut Miss Thang.[4]
A third single and another top 10 song from the album, "Why I Love You So Much", and an appearance on The Nutty Professor soundtrack maintained Monica's popularity in music and on music video channels through 1996 - the same year she went on tour with R&B/Hip-Hop groups TLC and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. 1997—2001: Worldwide popularityAfter graduating high school at age 16 with a 4.0 GPA in 1997 and a label change to Clive Davis's Arista Records, Arnold's mainstream success was boosted, when Diane Warren-written "For You I Will," from the Space Jam movie soundtrack, became her next top 10 pop hit. The following year she was asked to team up with singer Brandy and producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins to record "The Boy Is Mine", the first single off of both of their sophomore albums. Released in May 1998, the duet became both the biggest hit of the summer and the biggest hit of 1998 in general in America, spending a total of 13 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and garnering multi-platinum sales of the single (to date, it remains as one of the top ten most successful American singles in history based on Billboard chart success). On July 14, 1998 Arnold's same-titled sophomore album was released to positive reviews. The Boy Is Mine contained production by Jermaine Dupri, Dallas Austin, David Foster and Leslie Brathwaite and spawned two further international mainstream hits with the follow-up singles "The First Night" and "Angel of Mine" (a cover, first released by British group Eternal), both of which became number one pop successes in the United States and TRL video favorites on MTV. While the album's fourth single, "Street Symphony," failed to chart or sell notably in America, the album's fourth international single, "Inside", managed to enter the top 20 of the Official European Top 100. The album's final radio single, "Right Here Waiting", a 1989 hit by Richard Marx, re-recorded with 112, didn't feature a music video. Afterwards Arnold focused on recording soundtracks. In 2000 she contributed chorus vocals for "I've Got To Have It", a collaboration with Jermaine Dupri and rapper Nas which sampled Peter Gabriel's 1986 number-one hit "Sledgehammer." Released as the Big Momma's House' theme song, the song saw minor success in the United States only. A year after Monica released "Just Another Girl", a song she had recorded for the Down to Earth soundtrack. The single fared better, but failed to reach the top 50 of the U.S. Hot 100. Monica also started appearing in films and showed interest in acting. She starred in Love Song and was featured on Boys and Girls in 2000. 2002—2005: All eyez on After the StormImage:Shot monica sogone.jpg "So Gone" (2003), produced by rapper Missy Elliott, helped to initialize a successful comeback with re-recorded After the Storm. Monica's career saw troubles between the years 2001 and 2003, during which time she dealt with more personal tribulations including the suicide of her boyfriend Jarvis "Knot" Weems. J Records planned to release her third album All Eyez on Me in 2002, but due to heavy bootlegging of the album and failure of its singles "All Eyez on Me" and "Too Hood" the album was never released outside Japan. After recording new songs, Monica returned in June 2003 with After the Storm, the new-titled and re-recorded version of partially scrapped All Eyez on Me. It featured collaborations with Kanye West, Jermaine Dupri, Darkchild, Soulshock & Karlin, Jazze Pha, and executive producer Missy Elliott and became Monica's most critically-acclaimed album to date. The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, but sales fell off rapidly although it was certified gold by the RIAA and sold more than 997,000 copies domestcially. However, due to a lack of promotional appearances and limited release After the Storm saw minor success abroad only. The album spawned four singles, including its lead single "So Gone", a Missy Elliott-produced hit that was a staple at urban radio and music video stations during the summer of 2003 and that peaked at number 10 on Billboard's Hot 100, becoming Monica's first top ten hit since 1999 and ending up as the most-played song at urban radio for 2003. The second single off the album, "Knock Knock", failed to crack the top 20 of the charts, while simultaneously released "Get It Off" managed to peak at number 13 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. The album's fourth single "U Should've Known Better" (originally written for the All Eyez on Me album) went on to become another hit more than a year after the album's release. On May 21, 2005, Monica and her ex-fiancé, producer and Rowdy co-founder Rodney "Rock" Hill, Jr. welcomed a son into the world. The pair named the child Rodney Ramone Hill III, after his father. His godfather is rapper Ludacris, Monica's cousin-in-law. 2006—present: The Makings of MeImage:Everytime Tha Beat Drop-screenshot1.jpg "Everytime tha Beat Drop" (2006) failed to link the album The Makings of Me with previous successes. Monica's fourth studio album The Makings of Me was released on October 3, 2006 in the United States. It again primarily involved production by Missy Elliott, Jermaine Dupri, and Bryan Michael Cox, with additional tracks by The Underdogs, Harold Lilly, and Swizz Beatz. The album debuted on top of the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and at number 8 on the Billboard 200, selling 92,935 copies during its first week of release. The Makings of Me was a critical success, but failed to receive major commercial success, eventually becoming Monica's lowest selling album to date with around 270,000 copies sold. The album's lead single, the Jermaine Dupri produced "Everytime Tha Beat Drop", was serviced to radio on July 24, 2006, and peaked at a moderate number 48 on the U.S. Hot 100. The second single from The Makings of Me, Elliott produced "A Dozen Roses (You Remind Me)", peaked at position number 48 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, but never made it to the official Hot 100. The third single, "Sideline Ho" is currently off to a fast start on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at number 45. DiscographyFor more information about her singles, albums, and certifications, see Monica discography. Albums
FilmographyFilms
Television
AwardsWon
Nominated
See also
Notes
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