Monica (singer)
Monica Denise Brown (* 24. October 1980 in College Park , Georgia as Monica Denise Arnold ) is an American R & B - singer and actress .
biography
childhood
The Atlanta-raised daughter of the mechanic MC Arnold and the former Delta Air Lines account manager Marilyn Best gained her first singing experience at the age of two in the local church choir of the Jones Chapel United Methodist Church. After their parents separated in 1984, Arnold and her younger brother Montez (* 1983) initially lived with their mother; She later became a member of Charles Thompson and the Majestics, a twelve-member choir with whom she toured the States while still at school and competed in various talent and singing competitions. In 1992, producer Dallas Austin became aware of Monica during a brief appearance and it was decided, in agreement with Arista Records, to sign the young talented singer.
1990s
Two years later, Monica's first album, Miss Thang, was released . The record brought with "Don't Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)", the double-A single "Like This and Like That / Before You Walk Out of My Life" and "Why I Love You So Much" three consecutive top 10 singles and was awarded several platinum awards in the USA the following year . The long-awaited breakthrough and first international success only followed with the release of the single "For You I Will", the soundtrack to Michael Jordan's cartoon adaptation Space Jam , which brought Monica 1997 awards such as the American Music Award, Soul Train and Billboard Award .
These successes were surpassed in 1998 with the release of the second album The Boy Is Mine , whose first single of the same name in a duet with Brandy occupied top chart positions and made both singers not only the best-known faces of their genre, but also earned a Grammy . She continued her success with the follow-up singles "The First Night" (featured with producer Jermaine Dupri ) and the ballad "Angel of Mine", a cover by the British R&B trio Eternal: Both tracks reached number 1 on the American Billboard -Charts and were also successful in Europe and Japan .
Despite or because of the great public interest in her person, Monica decided at the end of 1999 to take a long break from the music business and devote herself to acting. This was followed by guest appearances in series such as Living Single and Felicity , but also roles in films such as Boys & Girls or the MTV production Love Song .
2000s
In 2002, Monica drew attention to herself for the first time with the release of "Just Another Girl", the title track to the Chris rock comedy Down to Earth ; the success of the single was limited. In the same year, "All Eyez on Me", a partial cover of the Michael Jackson hit "PYT", was released as a harbinger of the album of the same name, but the Darkchild production hardly achieved approval and flopped. The second attempt, "Too Hood" (another collaboration with Jermaine Dupri ) could not be placed in the charts and so it was decided, in consultation with Monica's new record company J Records, to only release the album in Japan.
A year later, in 2003, After the Storm , a revised and redesigned version of All Eyez on Me , finally came out . The album was particularly characterized by Missy Elliott's signature : The rapper not only contributed the hit single "So Gone", but also four other tracks to the record and was largely responsible for the album's number 1 success. In the course of the success, three more releases followed, including the double A single "Knock Knock / Get It Off" and the ballad "U Should've Known Betta".
After the birth of their first child Rodney Ramone Hill III, son of producer Rodney "Rock" Hill Junior, in May 2005, Monica began work on her fourth album, The Makings of Me , which was released in October 2006. The album was at the top of the American R&B charts, but quickly disappeared from the top chart ranks and was only able to sell around 250,000 copies. While the first single, “Everytime tha Beat Drop”, climbed to 48th place on the US Hot 100 , all of the successor singles missed the hit lists entirely.
In the fall of 2007, it was announced that the singer was expecting Hill's second child in January 2008. At the same time, she continued work on her fifth studio album with Missy Elliott, Bryan Michael Cox and Ne-Yo .
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1995 | Miss Thang | - | - | - | - |
US36  × 3
(61 weeks)US |
First published: July 18, 1995
|
| 1998 | The Boy Is Mine |
DE34 (13 weeks) DE |
- |
CH19 (14 weeks) CH |
UK52  (14 weeks)UK |
US8th × 3
(58 weeks)US |
First published: July 14, 1998
|
| 2002 | All Eyez on Me | - | - |
CH88 (1 week) CH |
- | - |
First published: October 21, 2002
|
| 2003 | After the storm | - | - | - | - |
US1  (37 weeks)US |
First published: June 17, 2003
|
| 2006 | The Makings of Me | - | - | - | - |
US8 (10 weeks) US |
First published: October 3, 2006
|
| 2010 | Still standing | - | - | - | - |
US2 (31 weeks)US |
First published: March 19, 2010
|
| 2012 | New Life | - | - | - | - |
US4 (10 weeks) US |
First published: April 6, 2012
|
| 2015 | Code Red | - | - | - | - |
US27 (3 weeks) US |
First published: December 18, 2015
|
Filmography
- 1996: Living Single (TV series, episode 3.24)
- 2000: Love Song (TV movie)
- 2000: Boys, Girls & a Kiss
- 2001: Felicity (TV series, episode 4.04)
- 2004: American Dreams (TV series, episode 2.02)
- 2006: ATL ( cameo )
- 2009: Pastor Brown
- 2016: Star (TV series, episode 1.12)
Individual evidence
Web links
- Monica Arnold in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Works by and about Monica in the catalog of the German National Library
- Official site (English).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Monica |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brown, Monica Denise (full name); Arnold, Monica Denise (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American R&B singer and actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 24, 1980 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | College Park , Georgia |