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Blu Cantrell (born Tiffany Cobb on March 16th, 1976 in Providence, Rhode Island) is a Grammy Award-nominated R&B and soul singer. As she grew up in Providence, R.I., with her five siblings, Blu Cantrell was toted from one jazz performance to another to watch her mother sing. From that point forward, she knew what she wanted to do, and began auditioning for vocal gigs and displaying her dynamic alto at talent shows. On a visit to Atlanta in 2000, Cantrell played her demo tape for A&R executive Tab and producer C. Stewart (aka Tricky) of RedZone Entertainment. They were so impressed that they immediately provided studio work to the young singer, and she sang backgrounds for artists including Gerald Levert, Faith Evans, Puff Daddy, and Aaron Hall. Meanwhile, Cantrell began recording tracks for what would ultimately become her first full-length album. Upon hearing the cut "Till I'm Gone," L.A. Reid, the CEO and president of Arista Records, signed Cantrell. Before the release of the full-length, the single "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)" occupied the number two position on the Hot 100 list. The buzz was out and Cantrell was invited to perform on national television programs. Her full-length debut, 2001's So Blu, reached the Top Ten on the album charts. Her next record, 2003's Bittersweet, didn't perform as well on the charts but did earn Cantrell a Grammy nomination for best R&B album. Cantrell was born to an Italian-American jazz singer mother, and an African American NBA player father. After several demos, recordings and singing backup for artists such as Puff Daddy, Truth Hurts and Faith Evans, Cantrell was discovered by Red Zone Entertainment heads Tab and Laney Stewart in early 2000. 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, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. In 2001, the singer released her debut album, So Blu, which eventually was certified platinum. The record saw major success when it peaked at #8 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, eventually selling over 800,000 copies in the United States. The album featured the hit single "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)", which peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and earned Cantrell a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, as well as an American Music Awards nomination. The album also showcases her ability to go into the whistle register with the song "Waste My Time." In 2003, Cantrell released her second album, Bittersweet. The record failed to reprise the success of her debut album but did earn Cantrell a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album and managed to enter the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at #8. The album spawned 2 hit singles, these being "Breathe" and "Make Me Wanna Scream", of which the first is a collaboration with Sean Paul. Though "Breathe" failed to reach the top 50 in the U.S., it peaked at number one for four weeks in the UK. It eventually became one of the most successful singles of the year in both Europe and Australia. In 2003, she 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 (despite nude photos she posed for much earlier in her career having already been circulated) 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 prodcuer and left Blu virtually out of the loop, so the video and the song were shelved. Also, in 2005, Hit 'em Up Style: Chart and Club Hits 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 the former two albums and some remixes of tracks featured on the first albums. Blu continues to enjoy acclaim by European audiences. |
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