Monica

Monica Denise Arnold, born on 24 October 1980, is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Originally from College Park, Georgia, she joined a travelling gospel choir at the age of ten. Monica signed in 1993 with producer Dallas Austin's label Rowdy Records and broke through with her first album, Miss Thang (1995). Her second album, The Boy Is Mine (1998), remains her biggest commercial success and produced three Billboard Hot 100 number ones: “The Boy Is Mine” (with Brandy), “The First Night” and “Angel of Mine”.

She then joined Clive Davis's label J Records in 2000. Her third album, All Eyez on Me (2002), saw a decline in both critical and commercial reception, but its partial reissue, After the Storm (2003), became her first number-one album on the Billboard 200, driven by the single “So Gone”, which reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100. Her subsequent albums, The Makings of Me (2006), Still Standing (2010, two Grammy Award nominations), New Life (2012) and Code Red (2015, her last on RCA), all reached the top ten of the Billboard 200.

Monica has also pursued an acting career, on television (Living Single, Felicity, American Dreams) and in film (Boys and Girls, Love Song, Pastor Brown), and served as a coach on The Voice in 2008. She has sold more than 25 million records worldwide, including more than five million in the United States, and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group for “The Boy Is Mine” at the 41st Grammy Awards.