Monica's+Biography

=**//Introducton: Done By Ebonie Boyland//**=

=//Born & Raised://=

Born: Monica Denise Arnold, on Oct. 24, 1980 in Oak Park, Georgia. Raised in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
=//Early Life://= === Monica's father is named M.C. Arnold Jr. and her mother is Marilyn Best. She has a younger brother named Montez and two half-brothers on her mother's side of the family. Her parents legally divorced in 1987 but had been separated for about three years before that. Monica grew up singing in church, and at the age of 10 had joined a traveling Gospel choir. Two years later, in 1992, Monica was discovered by Atlanta-based music producer Dallas Austin and he signed her to his Rowdy Records label. Her debut album, called //Miss Thang//, was released in July 1995. === Arnold was born in College Park, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. She is the oldest child and only daughter of Marilyn Best, a former church singer and Delta Air Lines customer service representative, and M.C. "Billy" Arnold Jr., a mechanic working for an Atlanta freight company. She has a younger brother named Montez, who was born in 1983, and two maternal half-brothers, Tron and Cypress. Arnold also is a cousin of record producer Polow da Don, and relative-in-law to rapper Ludacris through her mother's second marriage to Reverend Edward Best, a Methodist minister.

=// Straight 'A' Student: //= Due to many strong singles, including the smash hit "Don't Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)," //Miss Thang// was very successful sales-wise and eventually went on to sell over three million copies. During the time her debut album was riding high on the charts, Monica was finishing up her education. In 1996, at age 16, she graduated from high school, reportedly with a grade point average of 4.0. Over the course of the next year, rumors emerged that Monica was feuding with another young, highly-popular female singer - Brandy. Monica and Brandy both denied the rumors.

// The Boy Is Mine": // In 1998, Monica's second album, //The Boy is Mine// was released. The title track was a duet with Brandy, with the premise of the song being that the two were fighting over a guy. The singers acknowledged that song was meant as a way to further deny - and poke fun at - rumors that they didn't get along. The song was a massive hit and to date remains one of the 20 most successful singles in Billboard chart history. Over the next few years, Monica took time off from singing to explore other ventures, such as acting. But by 2002, Monica had finished recording her third album, //All Eyez on Me//.

"All Eyez on Me" Becomes "After the Storm":
Due to lackluster reaction to the first two singles (including the title track), plus heavy bootlegging, //All Eyez on Me// was released exclusively in Japan and not in the United States or anywhere else in the rest of the world. However, Monica went back into the studio and recorded more material for the album, and it was eventually revamped and released in the U.S. and abroad as //After the Storm//. The album included both new material as well as some salvaged songs that appeared on //All Eyez on Me//. To date, //After the Storm// has sold over a million copies in the U.S.

Reality TV:
In July 2006, Monica's fourth U.S. album, //The Makings of Me// was released. Despite good reviews (including one here on About.com), the album been her least commercially-successful album so far. To revive her career, she starred in the unscripted reality show "Monica: Still Standing," which aired on BET in late 2009 and early 2010. The show was the prelude to her fifth U.S. album, //Still Standing//, which was released in March 2010.

Discography:
2010: //Still Standing// 2006: //The Makings of Me// 2003: //After the Storm// 2002: //All Eyez on Me//* 1998: //The Boy is Mine// 1995: //Miss Thang//

= Recording career = [[|edit]] 1995–1999 In 1991, at the age of eleven, Arnold was discovered by music producer Dallas Austin at the Center Stage auditorium in Atlanta performing Whitney Houston 1986's "Greatest Love of All." Amazed by her voice, Dallas offered her a record deal with his Arista-distributed label Rowdy Records and consulted rapper Queen Latifah to work as Monica's first manager.Shortly afterwards Dallas and then staff producers Tim & Bob entered the studio with Arnold to start writing and producing her debut //Miss Thang// which was eventually released in July 1995 and scored number thirty-six on the U.S. //Billboard// 200and number seven on the Top R&B Albums chart. It was certified triple platinum by the RIAA for more than three million store-shipped copies and produced three top ten singles, including debut single "Don't Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)" and "Before You Walk out of My Life," both of which made Arnold the youngest artist ever to have two consecutive chart-topping hits on the U.S. //Billboard// Hot R&B Singles chart. //Miss Thang// subsequently won Monica a Billboard Music Award and garnered her an American Music Award nomination in the Favorite Soul/R&B New Artist caregory. After a label change to Clive Davis's Arista Records, Arnold's mainstream success was boosted, when Diane Warren-written "For You I Will," from the //Space Jam// soundtrack, became her next top ten pop hit. The following year she was asked to team up with singer Brandy and producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins to record "The Boy Is Mine," the first single from both of their second albums. Released in May 1998, surrounding highly publicized rumors about a real-life catfight between both singers,[ the duet became both the biggest hit of the summer and the biggest hit of 1998 in general in America,[ spending record-breaking thirteen weeks on top of the //Billboard// Hot 100 chart. It earned the pair a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" and garnered multi-platinum sales (to date, it remains as one of the top twenty most successful American singles in history based on //Billboard// chart success). Jermaine Dupri, David Foster and Austin consulted on the album //The Boy Is Mine//, which was released later that year and eventually became Monica’s biggest-selling album, becoming certified triple platinum by the RIAA for more than three million store-shipped copies. It yielded another two U.S. number-one hits with "The First Night" and "Angel of Mine," a cover of Eternal's 1997 single, as well as a remake of Richard Marx' "Right Here Waiting." //Rolling Stone Magazine// proclaimed it as "closer to soul's source... hearking back past hip-hop songbirds like Mary J. Blige and adult-contemporary sirens like Toni Braxton," while Allmusic called the album an "irresistible sounding [and] immaculately crafted musical backdrop [...] as good as mainstream urban R&B gets in 1998."


 * //[|Miss Thang]// (1995)
 * //[|The Boy Is Mine]// (1998)
 * //[|All Eyez on Me]// (2002)
 * //[|After the Storm]// (2003)
 * //[|The Makings of Me]// (2006)
 * //[|Still Standing]// (2010)

[[|edit]] Filmography
See also: [|Monica videography]

[[|edit]] Film

 * ~ Year ||  ||~ Film ||   ||~ Role ||   ||~ Notes ||


 * 2000 ||  || //[|Boys and Girls]// ||   || katie ||   || Supporting role ||


 * //[|Love Song]// ||  || Camille Livingston ||   || Lead role, TV film ||


 * 2006 ||  || //[|ATL]// ||   || Waffle House Waitress ||   || Cameo role ||


 * 2010 ||  || //[|Pastor Brown]// ||   || Lisa Cross ||   || Post-production ||

[[|edit]] Television

 * //[|All That]// (3 episodes; 1995, 1997, 1999) – Herself
 * //[|American Dreams]// (1 episode; 2003) – Special
 * //[|Beverly Hills, 90210]// (2 episodes; 1997, 1999) – Herself
 * //[|Felicity]// (1 episode; 2001) – Sarah Robinson
 * //[|Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is]// (3 episodes; 2006–2008) – Herself
 * //[|Living Single]// (1 episode; 1996) – Marissa
 * //The Single: Monica// (1 episode; 2008) – Special
 * //[|Monica: Still Standing]// (12 episodes; 2009–2010) – Herself

[[|edit]] Awards
Main article: List of Monica awards and nominations