ciara

Biography

Early life

Ciara was born in Austin, Texas. She grew up in army bases in Germany, New York, California, Arizona and Nevada, since her father was in the United States Army.

She has said that it was seeing a televised performance by Destiny's Child while staying home from school one day that inspired her to pursue a career in music. In her early teens she formed the goal to become a professional singer. She once was a cheerleader for her North Clayton high school team, until she quit. She then joined a girl group called "Hearsay", worked on her songwriting, eventually left the group, got a publishing deal, and found a "musical soulmate" when she met producer Jazze Pha.

Recording career

Goodies

Ciara's debut single, Goodies, became a hit, reaching the top of the United States pop and R&B/hip-hop charts, and also charting in the United Kingdom (in January 2005, also reaching number one), Australia, Germany, Sweden, and New Zealand. With help from Jazze Pha, Sean Garrett, and Lil Jon, Ciara released her debut album, Goodies on September 28, 2004. It entered the Billboard 200 chart at #3, and sold over 2 million copies in the United States alone.

The second single, "1, 2 Step", featuring Missy Elliott was released the same year, and reached #2 in the USA, and #3 in the UK benefiting from the fact that it was the first week that downloads were incorporated into the singles chart. Ciara charted one place higher than she would have done if downloads had not been included in the chart formula; she would have instead swapped places with Elvis Presley's re-issue of "The Wonder of You".

In May 2005, Ciara's third single, "Oh" featuring Ludacris, reached #2 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the U.K. charts. The single was released in the U.K. onof her rehearsals for the Soul Train Awards. In July of 2005 she released her DVD of all three of her music videos, the makings of two of them, commentaries of two of them, behind the scenes footage, and multi-angle shots of Goodies, entitled Goodies: The Videos & More.

Beyond Goodies

Furthermore Ciara was featured on Missy Elliott's #3 hit "Lose Control", taken from the rapper's sixth album, The Cookbook. In the fall of 2005, she was featured singing alongside then boyfriend, Bow Wow, on the second single from his third album Wanted entitled "Like You". The duet also reached a peak of #3. In the meantime her fourth single, "And I", was released and peaked at #96 which was relatively poor compared to the first three singles.

In the December of 2005 Ciara joined Gwen Stefani on her "Harajuku Lovers Tour", before going on tour with Bow Wow and Chris Brown for the "Holladay Jam" which stopped at cities like New York and Atlanta. On February 8, 2006 Ciara won her first Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video along with Missy Elliott. She also performed a duet with Maroon 5's Adam Levine during the show in tribute to the legendary R&B musician Sly Stone, the song that they sung was "Everyday People".

Ciara co-hosted 2006 ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards in Los Angeles on June 26th. She was nominated for the "Video of the Year" award with Missy Elliot and "Best Collaboration" with Bow Wow at the 2006 BET Awards, which she didn't attend.

Ciara: The Evolution

Ciara is currently putting the finishing touches on her sophomore release, entitled Ciara: The Evolution. [1] Her latest single, "Get Up" was included on the soundtrack to the motion picture Step Up, released on August 11, 2006, yet is not the first single off of the album.

Ciara's first single "Promise" from her second album, debuted at #62 on AOL Music's "First Listen" on September 22, 2006.[2]

Ciara will be featured on Diddy's new album "Press Play" on a song called "Wanna Move", also with Big Boi of Outkast and his protegee Scar.

Acting career

In May 2006, Ciara made her acting debut in the MTV Films coming-of-age film, entitled All You've Got, as Becca Watley, the queen bee of a high school volleyball team the Little Madonnas.^[1], The film was released on DVD May 23, 2006.

Philanthropy

On Friday, July 28, 2006, Ciara performed at the 4th Annual VH1 Save The Music Hamptons Benefit presented by Crest Whitestrips at the home of Jaci and Morris L. Reid in East Hampton. R&B singer Lyfe Jennings also performed at the event. The VH1 Save The Music Foundation raised over $500,000, which was $200,000 more than expected, to restore music education programs that have been cut from public school systems and the risk of eliminating musical instruments. .^[2],

Ciara also participated in a charity single for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, written and produced by Michael Jackson. The single, entitled "I Have This Dream", is also to be released sometime in 2006.

Discography

For complete discography see Ciara discography.

Studio Albums

1. Goodies (2004)
2. Ciara: The Evolution (2006)

Filmography

• 2006: All You've Got - Becca Watley

See also

• Ciara videography
• List of Ciara awards and nominations
• List of number-one hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
• List of number-one singles from the 2000s (UK)

Notes and references

External links

• Official site
• Official UK site
• Ciara at the Internet Movie Database
• Ciara at Billboard.com