Blu Cantrell extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Blu Cantrell
Background information
Birth name	Tiffany Cobb
Born	March 16, 1978 (1978-03-16) (age 30) Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Genre(s)	R&B, soul, neo soul, hip hop soul
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Years active	2001–present
Label(s)	Arista, Universal, Motown

Blu Cantrell (born Tiffany Cobb on March 16, 1976) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Music career 2 Discography 2.1 Albums 2.1.1 Studio albums 2.1.2 Other releases 3 Awards and nominations 3.1 Song appearances 4 References 5 External links

Biography

Early life

Blu Cantrell was born in Providence, Rhode Island to a Narragansett Indian and Cape Verdean father who also plays for the National Basketball Association and mother was Miss America, Actress and a jazz vocalist of French descent.

Music career

After several demos, recordings, and singing backup for artists such as Puff Daddy, Cantrell was discovered by Red Zone Entertainment heads Tab and Laney Stewart in early 2000. She also did collaborations with Baby Face, Usher, Dionne Warwick, Will I Am, Fat Joe, Lil Kim, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and jazz legend Herbie Hancock. The producers promptly placed her to Antonio "L.A." Reid who offered the singer a contract with his label Arista Records after a successful audition. Afterwards Cantrell went straight into recording sessions with Dallas Austin and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. In 2001, her debut album, So Blu, was released. The record saw major success when it peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually selling over 1.4 Million copies and going platinum in the United States. The album featured the hit single "Hit 'em Up Style (Oops!)", which peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and earned Cantrell a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance as well as an American Music Award nomination for Favorite Soul/R&B New Artist, both in 2002.

In 2003, Cantrell released her second album, Bittersweet. The record earned Cantrell a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Album and managed to enter the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at number eight and went number one everywhere worldwide and sold Diamond but in the United States. The album produced two hit singles, these being "Breathe" and "Make Me Wanna Scream", the former being a collaboration with Sean Paul. "Breathe" reached the top ten in the U.S., it peaked at number one for four weeks in the United Kingdom. It eventually became the number one single of the year worldwide.

That same year, Cantrell was to appear in Playboy magazine (and would have been only the fourth African American woman to appear on the cover), but decided against it at the last minute because "I felt it was going to make me more of a sex symbol and I didn't want anything to take away from the fact that I can sing".

In the summer of 2005, a music video for the previously unreleased song, "The Cha Cha", was produced, but never released because the production agreement over the song was unfairly advantageous to the producer and left Cantrell virtually out of the loop, so the video and the song were shelved. Also, in 2005, Hit 'em Up Style: Chart and Club Hits of Blu Cantrell was released without any promotion in the U.S. It was a compilation/remix album containing Cantrell's two biggest hits, some other tracks from her previous two albums and some remixes of tracks featured on the first albums. Cantrell continues to enjoy acclaim by European audiences.

Cantrell appeared in NBC's Celebrity Circus. The first episode aired with a ninety-minute kick-off special on June 11, 2008.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums 2001: So Blu 2003: Bittersweet 2009: (TBA) Other releases 2004: From L.A. to L.O. (mixtape) 2005: Hit 'em Up Style: Chart and Club Hits of Blu Cantrell (unofficial release)

Awards and nominations

• American Music Awards
  • Favorite Soul/R&B New Artist (Nominated)

• Grammy Awards
  • Best R&B Album: Bittersweet (Nominated)
  • Best Female R&B Vocal Performance: "Hit Em Up Style (Oops)" (Nominated)

Song appearances

Year	Song	Album
2001	"U Remind Me" (Remix) (with Usher and Method Man)	The Dome, Vol. 19
2002	"Round Up" (Lady May)	Bittersweet
2004	"Take My Heart" (Kool & the Gang)	The Hits: Reloaded

References

• Howell, Stephen. "Blu Cantrell bio". Accessed Jun. 16, 2005.

External links

• Blu Cantrell at Allmusic
• Blu Cantrell at MySpace