Amerie

Template:Infobox musical artist 2 Amerie Mi Marie Rogers (born January 12, 1980), known professionally as Amerie, is an American R&B singer-songwriter.

Early life

Rogers was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, to an African American father and a South Korean mother. As a result of her father being in the United States military, Amerie traveled to and lived in many different places, including Alaska, Texas, Germany, and South Korea. She graduated from Georgetown University in 2000 with a degree in English and Fine Arts. She considers Washington, D.C. to be her home and has a younger sister named Angela. Amerie and her sister's first language is Korean.

Music career

All I Have

File:All I Have.jpg

All I Have (2002)

Amerie received her big break in 2001 when she blessed a track from Nas' Stillmatic release 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 623,000 units sold.

In fall 2002 she once again continued solo and released a cover of the Diana Ross' classic "I'm Coming Out" as a single to the Maid in Manhattan movie. 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, top 40 in the U.S.) and later on DJ Kay Slay's "Too Much For Me". Neither single, although their videos received a lot of attention from digital music video channels, 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 romantic comedy First Daughter alongside Michael Keaton, Katie Holmes, Lela Rochon, and Marc Blucas.

Touch

File:Touch (album).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. It debuted and peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200 and #3 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album Touch 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. Producer Rich Harrison sampled the distinctive main drum-and-guitar loops of the song from a 1970 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, it peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 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" –, four nominations for Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards – "Best R&B/Soul Single, Solo" and "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 autumn 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. While latter one was able to enter to the top 20 in several European countries and in Australia, the album's title track failed to preprise the success of "1 Thing". At last it didn't even enter the Billboard Hot 100, though peaking at #19 on the UK Singles Chart. "Talkin' About" was planned to be released as a third single but wasn't.

None of the Above

Currently Amerie is completing her third album, None of the Above, with Rich Harrison, Bryan Michael Cox, DJ Premier and others in New York City. The album is due for release in Fall 2006, with an unconfirmed date. Tracks that have leaked from the album are "Some Like It" and "Take Control".

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	U.S.	UK	Sales certification
2002	All I Have	9	-	Gold (U.S.)
2005	Touch	5	28	Gold (U.S.), Silver (UK)
2006	None of the Above (Fall 2006)	-	-	-

Singles

Year	Song	U.S. Hot 100	U.S. R&B	UK Singles	Album
2002	"Why Don't We Fall In Love"	23	9	40	All I Have
2002	"Talkin' To Me"	51	18	-	All I Have
2003	"Paradise" (LL Cool J featuring Amerie)	36	14	18	10
2005	"1 Thing"	8	1	4	Hitch soundtrack / Touch
2005	"I Don't Care" (Ricky Martin featuring Fat Joe & Amerie)	65	-	11	Life
2005	"Touch"	119	95	19	Touch

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 2.0 (Version 2)
2003	"To My Mama" (Bow Wow featuring Amerie)	Unleashed
2004	"Rest of My Life" (Nas featuring Amerie)	Street's Disciple
2005	"I Don't Care" (Ricky Martin featuring Fat Joe & Amerie)	Life

Soundtracks

Year	Song	Movie
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

• Won Soul Train Music Awards for Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist ("Why Don't We Fall In Love")
• Nominated for Soul Train Music Awards for Best R&B/Soul Single, Female ("Why Don't We Fall In Love")
• Nominated for NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding New Artist

2003

• Nominated BET Awards for Best Female R&B Artist
• Nominated for 2 Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Awards for Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist - Female and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist - New

2005

• Won Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards for Entertainer of the Year
• Nominated for 2 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Female Video and Best Choreography ("1 Thing")
• Nominated for 2 BET Awards for Best Female R&B Artist and Video Of The Year ("1 Thing")
• Nominated for 4 Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards for Best R&B/Soul Single, Solo; Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video; Best R&B/Soul or Rap Dance Cut; R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year ("1 Thing")
• Nominated for MOBO Awards for Best Single ("1 Thing")
• Won for VIBE Music Award for Club Banger of the Year ("1 Thing") [1]
• Nominated for Kiss Awards for Best Newcomer
• Nominated for 2 Virgin.net Music Awards for Best Single ("1 Thing") and Babe of the Year
• Nominated for a Billboard Music Awards for Top Soundtrack Single of the Year ("1 Thing")

2006

• Nominated for Groovevolt Music & Fashion Awards for Best R&B Song Performance ("1 Thing")
• Nominated for People's Choice Awards for Best Song in a Movie ("1 Thing")
• Nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance ("1 Thing")
• Nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary R&B Album (Touch)
• Won ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards for Soundtrack Song of the Year ("1 Thing").

See also

• List of musical artists from Massachusetts

External links

• Official Label Site
• Oh Amerie Fan Site
• Amerie at IMDb
• Amerie at MySpace
• Yahoo! Groups Amerie Fan site:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AmeriesTrueFans/