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Amerie

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Amerie

Amerie Mi Marie Rogers (born January 12, 1980), known professionally as Amerie, is a Grammy Award-nominated American R&B singer, songwriter, and actress.

Early life

Rogers was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, to an African-American father and a South Korean mother. Her father was in the United States military, so Amerie traveled to and lived in many different places, including Alaska, Texas, Germany, and South Korea. She has a younger sister, Angela Rogers, who is now her lawyer.

She graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in English and Fine Arts. She has a younger sister, Angela, who is enrolled in a law school in Baltimore, Maryland. Amerie's first language is Korean. However, after the family left Seoul, where they had lived for several years, Amerie's mother made a conscious effort to limit the use of Korean with her daughters out of fear that it would impede their development of English proficiency. In an interview with KoreAm Journal, Amerie stated that she is now only "conversational" in the Korean language and speaks it at home with her mother, Angela, and extended Korean family members[citation needed]. Amerie also bears a tattoo featuring her given name in Korean script on her lower back. Amerie is noted for signing her name in both English and Korean when giving autographs.

Music career

All I Have

File:All I Have.jpg
All I Have (2002)

Amerie received her big break in 2001 when she was featured on a track from Nas' fifth studio album Stillmatic entitled "Rule". Throughout early 2002, Amerie's single, "Why Don't We Fall In Love," from her debut album All I Have, received much urban radio airplay. Producer Rich Harrison wrote and produced All I Have in its entirety, except for the track "Outro" which Amerie co-wrote. Amerie's album was released amid the success of her "Why Don't We Fall In Love" single, and the media immediately began to judge her successes against those of other recent female R&B artists such as Tweet and Ashanti.

The album's next single, "Talkin' To Me," did not hit nearly as big at urban radio, yet its video still enjoyed strong support from MTV2. VH1 Soul has been known to play both of Amerie's videos with regularity since their debuts, and MTV Jams still occasionally spins "Why Don't We Fall In Love." The album was a surprise success, going Gold with 723,000 units sold in America and 1,6 million sold worldwide.

In fall of 2002, she once again continued solo and released a cover of the Diana Ross' 1980's classic "I'm Coming Out" as a single for the soundtrack to the 2002's film Maid in Manhattan. Afterwards, in 2003, Amerie returned to the music scene briefly as a featured vocalist, first on LL Cool J's "Paradise" (a top 20 entry in the UK and a top 40 in the U.S.) and later on DJ Kayslay's "Too Much For Me" singing background. Although their videos received attention from digital music video channels, neither single went on to become a hit.

Around this time, Amerie also spent some time as the host of a brand new show on BET called The Center. However, she left the show before her contract was up because she had been offered a supporting role as Mia Thompson in the 2004's romantic comedy First Daughter alongside Michael Keaton, Katie Holmes, Lela Rochon, and Marc Blucas.

Touch

File:Touch Amerie low.jpg
Touch (2005)

On April 26, 2005, Amerie released her sophomore album, Touch. Once again the album was primarily produced by mentor Rich Harrison, who contributed seven (new) tracks to the record; additional productions came from Lil Jon, Bryce Wilson, Red Spyda, and Dre & Vidal. Unlike her first album, Amerie co-wrote every track except "Come With Me," which Rich Harrison wrote. It debuted and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and number three on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The album was certifed Gold by the RIAA in August of that year. The album received two Grammy Award nominations in 2006.

Along with Touch, Amerie's biggest hit came with the first single "1 Thing." The track was also featured on the soundtrack to Hitch, a romantic comedy film starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes. Producer Rich Harrison sampled the distinctive main drum-and-guitar loops of the song from a 1970's version of "Oh! Calcutta!" by funk group The Meters. The song was later certified Platinum (200,000+ downloads) and became her first top ten hit in the U.S., where it peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. "1 Thing" also earned several awards and nominations: two nominations for MTV Video Music Awards – "Best Female Video" and "Best Choreography" – and four nominations for Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards – "Best R&B/Soul Single, Solo," "R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year," "Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video," and "Best R&B/Soul or Rap Dance Cut." At the 2005 VIBE Awards, Amerie took home "Club Banger of the Year" for her hit. "1 Thing" also spawned into a variety of remixes by rappers such as Eve, Fabolous, and Jay-Z.

In fall of 2005, Amerie went on with a second single "Touch" and "I Don't Care," the lead single of Ricky Martin's album Life in collaboration with Fat Joe.

Because I Love It

Currently Amerie is completing her third album. In May 2006, Amerie gave a short interview with VIBE magazine. In it, she stated that her new album would be called None Of The Above as she "feels like as people we never like to be in boxes and myself, I never like to feel like I'm categorized." It has now been stated that the album will now be called Because I Love It. The album will feature production from her long-time collaborator Rich Harrison, Bryan Michael Cox, DJ Premier, and others in New York City. The album will be released spring of 2007. Tracks that have leaked onto the Internet are "Some Like It," "Take Control," and "That's What U R." "Take Control," which was produced by Amerie herself and Cee-Lo from Gnarls Barkley, is the first single from her upcoming album.

Because I Love It Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Amerie has stated that she plans to release two mixtapes before the release of her official album in the spring of 2007. The first, Because I Love It Vol. 1, has been released and is avaliable to listen to via her MySpace page. The second, Because I Love It Vol. 2, is set to be released at the beginning of 2007, followed by the release of the official Because I Love It. Amerie confirmed this information in the "Outro" of her first mixtape. It is rumored that Amerie has dissed Beyoncé on the song "Because I Love It (Intro)," claiming that R&B girls are stealing her style. Amerie is the first female artist to create a mixtape album of its kind (all-new material of full songs and devoid of features). [1][2][3]

Discography

Albums

Information about release dates and certifications are regarding to the U.S. ones.

Singles

Year Single Album Chart positions
U.S. U.S. R&B UK AUS
2002 "Why Don't We Fall In Love" All I Have 23 9 40 73
"Talkin' To Me" 51 18 — —
2003 "Paradise" (LL Cool J featuring Amerie) 10 36 14 18 28
"I'm Coming Out" Maid in Manhattan soundtrack — — — 66
2005 "1 Thing" Hitch soundtrack / Touch 8 1 4 13
"I Don't Care" (Ricky Martin featuring Fat Joe and Amerie) Life 65 — 11 25
2005 "Touch" Touch — 95 19 33
2006 "Take Control" Because I Love It

Album appearances

Year Song Album
2001 "Rule" (Nas featuring Amerie) Stillmatic
2002 "Paradise" (LL Cool J featuring Amerie) 10
2002 "Life" (Royce Da 5'9" featuring Amerie) Rock City (Version 2.0)
2003 "To My Mama" (Bow Wow featuring Amerie) Unleashed
2005 "I Don't Care" (Ricky Martin featuring Fat Joe and Amerie) Life
2006 "Dog Love" (DMX featuring Janyce and Amerie) Year Of The Dog...Again
2006 "Crunk Didi (Losin' U)" (Willy Denzey featuring Amerie) Raï'n'B Fever 2

Other collaborations

Year Song Artist(s) Album Collaboration
2003 "Too Much For Me" DJ Kayslay featuring Nas, Baby and Foxy Brown The Streetsweeper Vol. 1 Background vocals, songwriting
2004 "Rest Of My Life" Nas Street's Disciple Background vocals

Soundtracks

Year Song Film
2002 "Rule" (Nas featuring Amerie) Like Mike
2002 "I'm Coming Out" Maid in Manhattan
2002 "Paradise" (LL Cool J featuring Amerie) Deliver Us from Eva
2003 "Think Of You" Honey
2005 "1 Thing" Hitch

Awards and nominations

2002

Wins

Nominations

2003

Nominations

2005

Wins

  • Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards: "Entertainer of the Year"
  • VIBE Awards: "Club Banger of the Year" ("1 Thing")

Nominations

  • MTV Video Music Awards: "Best Female Video" and "Best Choreography" ("1 Thing")
  • BET Awards: "Best Female R&B Artist" and "Video of the Year" ("1 Thing")
  • Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards: "Best R&B/Soul Single, Solo," "Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video," "Best R&B/Soul or Rap Dance Cut," and "R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year" ("1 Thing")
  • MOBO Awards: "Best Single" ("1 Thing")
  • Kiss Awards: "Best Newcomer"
  • Virgin.net Music Awards: "Best Single" ("1 Thing") and "Babe of the Year"
  • Billboard Music Awards: "Top Soundtrack Single of the Year" ("1 Thing")

2006

Wins

  • ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards: "Top Soundtrack Song of the Year" ("1 Thing")

Nominations

See also

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
  3. ^ [3]
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