Maxwell (musician)

Maxwell in Toronto (2008)

Maxwell (* 23. May 1973 in New York ; actually Gerald Maxwell Rivera ) is an American R & B - musicians .

biography

Maxwell was born in Brooklyn in 1973 and grew up in East New York . His father, who is from Puerto Rico, died in a plane crash when Maxwell was three years old. He made his first musical experiences at an early age as a singer in a Baptist church. At 17 he began to write his own songs. In 1994, when he was 21, he got a record deal with Columbia Records .

Together with songwriter Leon Ware and guitarist Wah Wah Watson , he recorded his debut album Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite that same year , which had to wait two years for its release because the record company doubted success. The second single Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder) was a hit and gave him the breakthrough. It sold over half a million times and was awarded gold . The album went double platinum (two million copies sold) and was nominated for a Grammy Award .

On June 15, 1997 he played an MTV Unplugged session, the first seven songs of which appeared on the EP MTV Unplugged: Maxwell .

His second album Embrya was released in 1998. In 1999 he contributed the song Fortunate to the soundtrack of the film Lifelong . The song became his most successful single to date, spent 8 weeks at number 1 on the US R&B charts and was named the best R&B single of 1999 by Billboard Magazine .

Now, his third album, was released in 2001 and reached number 1 on the album sales charts . This was followed by a long break and only in 2009 did he come back with a new single and a new album.

2012 sung by Maxwell song was Fire We Make on the album Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys released.

At the Grammy Awards in 2017 his song was Lake by the Ocean named best R & B song.

Private life

His girlfriend is Deimantė Guobytė (* 1991), bikini model from Lithuania .

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	R&B
1996	Urban Hang Suite	-	-	-	UK39 gold (20 weeks)UK	US37 × 2 Double platinum (78 weeks)US	R&B8 (103 weeks) R&B	First published: April 2, 1996
1998	Embrya	-	-	CH38 (8 weeks) CH	UK11 silver (9 weeks)UK	US3 platinum (18 weeks)US	R&B2 (66 weeks) R&B	First published: June 23, 1998
2001	Now	DE58 (3 weeks) DE	-	CH64 (4 weeks) CH	UK46 (2 weeks) UK	US1 platinum (41 weeks)US	R&B1 (53 weeks) R&B	First published: August 14, 2001
2009	BLACKsummers'night	-	-	-	UK66 (1 week) UK	US1 (53 weeks) US	R&B2 (71 weeks) R&B	First published: July 7, 2009
2016	blackSUMMERS'night	-	-	CH64 (1 week) CH	UK72 (1 week) UK	US3 platinum (10 weeks)US	R&B2 (29 weeks) R&B	First published: July 1, 2016

EPs

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	R&B
1997	MTV Unplugged	-	-	-	UK45 (2 weeks) UK	US53 gold (15 weeks)US	R&B15 (35 weeks) R&B	First published: July 15, 1997

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	R&B
1996	Til the Cops Come Knockin ' Urban Hang Suite	-	-	-	UK63 (2 weeks) UK	-	R&B79 (12 weeks) R&B	First published: May 15, 1996
	Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder) Urban Hang Suite	-	-	-	UK28 (6 weeks) UK	US36 gold (18 weeks)US	R&B8 (29 weeks) R&B	First published: July 30, 1996
	Sumthin 'Sumthin' Urban Hang Suite	-	-	-	UK27 (3 weeks) UK	-	R&B23 (20 weeks) R&B	First published: December 1996
1998	Matrimony: Maybe You Embrya	-	-	-	-	-	R&B79 (4 weeks) R&B
1999	Fortunate Life Sentence (OST)	-	-	-	-	US4th gold (25 weeks)US	R&B1 (42 weeks) R&B	First published: March 3, 1999
	Let's Not Play the Game The Best Man (OST)	-	-	-	-	-	R&B55 (17 weeks) R&B	First published: October 12, 1999
2001	Get to Know Ya Now	-	-	-	-	-	R&B25 (20 weeks) R&B	First published: 2001
	Lifetime Now	-	-	-	-	US22 (20 weeks) US	R&B5 (39 weeks) R&B	First published: October 16, 2001
2002	This Woman's Work Now	-	-	-	UK41 (2 weeks) UK	US58 (15 weeks) US	R&B16 (43 weeks) R&B	First published: January 2002
2009	Pretty Wings BLACKsummers'night	-	-	-	-	US33 Gold (mastertone) + gold (23 weeks)US	R&B1 (59 weeks) R&B	First published: April 28, 2009
	Bad Habits BLACKsummers'night	-	-	-	-	US71 (14 weeks) US	R&B4 (51 weeks) R&B	First published: June 9, 2009
	Cold BLACKsummers'night	-	-	-	-	-	R&B62 (2 weeks) R&B	First published: June 2009
2010	Fistful of Tears BLACKsummers'night	-	-	-	-	US94 (4 weeks) US	R&B11 (48 weeks) R&B	First published: January 19, 2010
2016	Lake by the Ocean blackSUMMERS'night	-	-	-	-	-	R&B50 (1 week) R&B	First published: April 8, 2016

More singles

• 1996: Softly Softly (with Sweetback )
• 1997: Suitelady (The Proposal Jam)
• 1997: Whenever, Wherever, Whatever
• 1998: Luxury: Cococure
• 2004: No One Else in the Room (with Nas )
• 2009: Smile (with The Alchemist )
• 2016: 1990x
• 2017: Gods

Guest Posts

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	R&B
2013	Fire We Make Girl on Fire	-	-	-	-	US- gold US	R&B38 (11 weeks) R&B	Alicia Keys feat. Maxwell First published: May 28, 2013

swell

1. ↑ Snap happy! Singer Maxwell looks like the cat that got the cream as he photographs bikini-clad model girlfriend Deimante Guobyte during beach frolic
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chart sources: DE CH UK US
3. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK US

Web links

• official website (English)
• Maxwell at Allmusic (English)