Brandy

Background

Brandy Rayana Norwood, famously known as Brandy, has been a household name for decades. The talented artist was born to her father, Willie Norwood, and mother, Sonja Norwood. Her father was a gospel singer and choir director, while her mother ran H&R Block as the district manager. They lived in McComb, Mississippi, together with her younger brother Ray J. Brandy was raised with Christian values and even started singing in her father’s church choir. She attended Hollywood High Performing Arts Center in 1983 when her parents relocated to Carson, California. In 1990, she got a job as the backing vocalist for the R&B boy band Immature after signing with Teaspoon Productions. In 1993, she signed with Atlantic Recording Corporation through her parents while still in talks with East West Records. Her mother resigned from her job and became her manager, and she started homeschooling.

In 1994, she released her first album, self-titled “Brandy,” which attracted a fair level of success. In 1996 she acted in the U.P.N. sitcom, “Moesha,” which won her first award, N.A.A.C.P. Image Award, and flooded other acting opportunities in her direction. Her breakthrough musically, however, came with the single duet she did with R&B contemporary artist Monica, titled ‘The Boy Is Mine,’ in 1998. She also released her second album that year, “Never say Never,” which won her first Grammy Award. In 2002, she released a reality series documenting the birth of her daughter, Sy’rai Smith, titled “Brandy: Special Delivery.” She competed on “Dancing with the Stars” season 11 in 2010, and in the same year, featured in the series “Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business.” In 2015, she debuted in the musical “Chicago” as Roxie Hart on Broadway and as well executive produced and featured in the sitcom “Zoe Ever After,” which premiered in 2016. Her seventh album, “B7,” was proudly her first project as an independent musician.

Brandy has dated a couple of celebrities in her time. She was the girlfriend of the legendary Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers at prom in 1996 before dating Boyz II Men lead singer Wanya Morris and Rapper Mase. In 2001, she got into a relationship with the producer Robert ‘Big Bert’ Smith, and the two had a daughter together. They, however, separated in 2002. In her seventh album, “B7,” she released a single dubbed ‘Bye Bipolar,’ which begins the conversation about how toxic relationships affected her mental health and explains how she suffered from depression and P.T.S.D. but overcame it through therapy, meditation, journaling, and prayer.