Brandy Norwood

Brandy Rayana Norwood (born February 11, 1979), known professionally as Brandy, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her intricate vocal riffs, and is regarded as an influential figure in contemporary R&B. Born into a musical family in McComb, Mississippi, Brandy was raised in Carson, California, where she began her career as a backing vocalist for youth music groups. After signing to Atlantic Records, she rose to prominence in the mid-1990s with her debut album, Brandy (1994), which spawned the US Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles "I Wanna Be Down", "Baby", and "Brokenhearted". She became a television star with her lead role on the UPN sitcom Moesha (1996–2001) and portrayed Cinderella in the television film Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997). Brandy's best-selling second album, Never Say Never (1998), yielded two US number-one singles: "The Boy Is Mine" and "Have You Ever?". The former, a duet with Monica, spent thirteen weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and won both artists their first Grammy Award. Brandy ventured into more experimental sounds with the electronic-infused Full Moon (2002) and the ambient-inspired Afrodisiac (2004). She served as a judge on the first season of America's Got Talent in 2006 and explored pop on her fifth album, Human (2008). In 2010, Brandy returned to television as a contestant on the eleventh season of Dancing with the Stars. In 2012, she released her sixth studio album, Two Eleven. She made her Broadway debut in 2015, portraying Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago. Her most-recent studio albums, B7 and Christmas with Brandy, were released in 2020 and 2023, respectively. Brandy is certified as selling 17 million albums and singles in the US, and she is the recipient of a Grammy Award and an American Music Award. Norwood received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in March 2026, and published her memoir, Phases, that same month, which debuted at number one on the New York Times Bestseller list.