Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Often referred to as the "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and "Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Awards, twelve NAACP Image Awards, and twelve Billboard Music Awards, including the Billboard Icon Award. She has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, including one for her supporting role in the film Mudbound (2017) and another for its original song "Mighty River", becoming the first person nominated for acting and songwriting in the same year.
Meiko is an American singer-songwriter residing in London, England. She independently released a self-titled album on September 1, 2007. All of the tracks from the LP have been featured in major network TV shows. Her second full-length, titled The Bright Side, was released through Fantasy Records on May 15, 2012, and a single from the album, "Stuck On You", reached No. 1 on the combined Japanese AirPlay Chart and No. 1 on the International Chart in Japan.
Faith Renée Evans is an American R&B singer, songwriter and actress. Born in Lakeland, Florida and raised in New Jersey, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1991 in pursuit of a recording career. She first performed as a backing vocalist for R&B singers Al B. Sure! and Christopher Williams, and by the age of 20, signed with Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records as the label's first female artist in 1994. Following her uncredited appearance on labelmate the Notorious B.I.G.'s single "One More Chance", she released her debut studio album, Faith (1995) to critical acclaim and moderate commercial reception. Evans then guest performed alongside 112 on Puff Daddy's 1997 single "I'll Be Missing You," which won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group and became the first hip hop song to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100. Her second and third albums, Keep the Faith (1998) and Faithfully (2001) peaked at numbers six and 14 on the Billboard 200, respectively, and saw further critical praise.
LaToya Renee London is an American R&B and soul singer and stage actress who was fourth-place finalist on the third season of American Idol. Her debut album, Love & Life, was released in September 2005 and spawned a number of moderate R&B chart hits. She has concentrated on stage work, including originating and performing the role of Nettie in the national tour of the Broadway musical The Color Purple from 2007 to 2010, for which she won an Ovation Award. She was the lead in the U.S. regional debut of The Bodyguard, a musical based on the 1992 film.
Charlene Keys, better known by the stage name Tweet, is an American singer-songwriter.
Juice Newton is an American pop and country singer, songwriter, and musician. Newton has received five Grammy Award nominations in the Pop and Country Best Female Vocalist categories – winning once in 1983 – as well as an ACM Award for Top New Female Artist and two consecutive Billboard Female Album Artist of the Year awards. Newton's other awards include a People's Choice Award for "Best Female Vocalist" and the Australian Music Media's "Number One International Country Artist".
Jill Heather Scott is an American singer, songwriter, model, poet, and actress. Her 2000 debut album, Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1, went platinum and the follow-ups Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2 (2004) and The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3 (2007) both achieved gold status.
Marcella Levy, known professionally as Marcy Levy and Marcella Detroit, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She co-wrote the 1977 Eric Clapton hit "Lay Down Sally" and released her debut studio album Marcella in 1982. She joined Shakespears Sister in 1988 with ex-Bananarama member Siobhan Fahey. Their first two studio albums, Sacred Heart (1989), and Hormonally Yours (1992), both reached the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. Detroit sang the lead vocals on their biggest hit, "Stay", which spent eight consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in 1992. Detroit left the band in 1993 and had a UK top 20 hit with "I Believe" in 1994. She formed the Marcy Levy Band in 2002, and finished third in the 2010 ITV series Popstar to Operastar.
Donna Lewis is a Welsh singer. She is best known for the 1996 pop hit single "I Love You Always Forever", which peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart, and also peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, and the United States. In the US, the song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks, having been held off the summit by the Bayside Boys Remix of "Macarena" by Los Del Rio. It also became the highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 by a Welsh artist since Bonnie Tyler topped the chart with "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1983. Additionally, the single is tied third among songs with the longest runs at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and at second for most weeks at number one on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart. Lewis teamed up with Richard Marx on the 1997 adult contemporary hit "At the Beginning" for the Anastasia soundtrack. In 1997, Lewis was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Female Artist.
Olivia Theresa Longott is an American R&B singer. She is best known for performing with the hip hop group G-Unit and also known as a cast member on the VH1 reality television series Love & Hip Hop: New York.
Kanesha Nichole Brookes, better known by her stage name Brooke Valentine, is an American actress, model, singer, songwriter, and television personality. Her single "Girlfight" peaked on U.S. music charts in 2005, paving the way for her debut album Chain Letter released via Subliminal Entertainment imprint on Virgin Records and went on to sell more than 290,000 units worldwide. After a first attempt at a comeback, Brooke officially returned to the spotlight in 2012 with two singles "Forever" and the Adult R&B Top 40 hit "Don't Wanna Be In Love".
Teairra Marí Thomas is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress. At the age of 16, Jay-Z signed her to Def Jam and she released her first album, Roc-A-Fella Records Presents Teairra Marí. After disappointing sales, she was let go from her recording contract in the middle of production for her second album Second Round. In 2008, she returned to the music scene with the Pleasure P-assisted single "Hunt 4 U". After constant leaks, she re-recorded a second attempt at her second album titled At That Point, which was later shelved. In 2010, she starred in the film Lottery Ticket alongside rappers Bow Wow and Ice Cube. Since 2010, she has released several mixtapes including features from Nicki Minaj, Soulja Boy, and Gucci Mane.
Holly Brook Hafermann, known professionally as Skylar Grey, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. In 2004, at the age of 17, Grey signed a publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group and a recording contract with Linkin Park's Machine Shop Recordings under the name Holly Brook. Her debut studio album, Like Blood Like Honey (2006), served as her only release with the label.
Day26 is an American male R&B music group formed in August 2007 by Sean "Diddy" Combs in a handpicked selection at the end of MTV's Making the Band 4. The group consists of Robert Curry, Brian Angel, Willie Taylor, Qwanell Mosley and Michael McCluney. The moniker is a tribute to the day when Angel, McCluney, Mosely, Curry, and Taylor went from unknowns to stars. The group released their first album, Day26, on March 25, 2008, one week after their then labelmates and Making the Band 3 winners Danity Kane released Welcome to the Dollhouse. The album's first single, "Got Me Going", was released on the finale of Making the Band 4. The album went on to debut at number one on the billboard charts. Subsequent seasons of Making the Band 4 featured the group on tour and making their second album Forever in a Day which also topped the Billboard charts.
Noelle Scaggs is an American musician and singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, known as the co-lead singer of the pop group Fitz and the Tantrums. Scaggs has also had numerous collaborations with the Black Eyed Peas, Dilated Peoples, Quantic, Mayer Hawthorne, and Damian Marley.
Yukimi Eleanora Nagano is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She is the vocalist for the Swedish electronic group Little Dragon.
Priscilla Ahn is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She released her single "Dream" from her debut album, A Good Day, produced by Joey Waronker for EMI's Blue Note Records, in 2008. After growing up in Pennsylvania and graduating from high school, Ahn moved to Los Angeles, California, adopted her mother's Korean maiden name, and began to pursue a music career.
Angel Deradoorian, also known mononymously as Deradoorian, is a musician based in Los Angeles, California. She is best known for her work with Dirty Projectors as full-time member from 2007 to 2012. She left to pursue a solo career. In 2015 she released a solo studio album, The Expanding Flower Planet.
"Poison" is a song that was recorded by American singer Beyoncé for the 2009 deluxe edition of her third studio album, I Am… Sasha Fierce (2008) and the EP titled I Am... Sasha Fierce – The Bonus Tracks (2009). It was written by Johntá Austin, Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen of the production team Stargate and Beyoncé while the production was handled by the later two. The song leaked online in August 2009 prior to the release of the deluxe edition of I Am… Sasha Fierce. During that month, it was included on a mixtape by DJ Haze titled Big R&B Ego.
Tarralyn LaJuan Ramsey is an American gospel musician, songwriter and artist. She began her music career in 2000, with the release of the religious Tarralyn Ramsey album on Verity Records. This would be her Billboard magazine breakthrough release on the Gospel Albums chart. Following her win on the VH1 reality series Born to Diva in 2003, she signed with Casablanca Records and released her second album, Tarralyn, which featured the single "Up Against All Odds".
