In 1977, Sonja Bates Norwood got pregant from her husband Willie Norwood, Sr. They were living in McComb, Mississipi at that time. Unfortunately, Sonja lost her baby at eight months pregnant. The doctor told her she would risk her life if she tried to have another baby. However, the couple tried againm and Sonja got pregnant again in 1978 and gave birth to beautiful babygirl, Brandy Rayana Norwood on February 11, 1979.

Two years later, Sonja Norwood gave birth to another baby, this time named Willie Raymond Norwood, Jr., better known as Ray-J. Willie, Sr. then got hired as a music director in a church in California. The family decided to move to Carson, a suburb in Los Angeles.

Brandy is singing since she is 2 years old. She could actually sing before she could walk or even talk. Brandy sang at church and was always the lead singer in the choir. At that time, she never knew she would become a professional singer. However, her decision was made when she saw Whitney Houston's video "How Will I Know?" on VH1. Shen then ran to her mom and told her she wanted to become a singer.

A few years later, Norwood met a producer that shopped her around various record labels, trying to get a deal.But it's only at 14 that she got a record deal with the famous and notorious Atlantic Recording Corporation. Brandy was singing at an Atlantic party and no one was listening to her. She then got all the attention by telling people they were being rude because they werent' listening to her. She then sang again and it caught an executive's ear. She released her first album, Brandy, in 1994. Singles like I Wanna Be Down, Baby and Brokenhearted topped the charts for several weeks. The track Baby was in nomination for best R&B song at the '96 Grammy Awards.

Just before Brandy was released, Brandy was playing a little girl named Danesha Turrell in the sitcom Thea, sitcom that premiered in 1993. Unfortunately, the show didn't last longer, though it was quite popular. It was taken off the screens eight months after its release. A year after the release of Brandy, which was already platinum, Brandy made a comeback to the television with another sitcom, this time called Moesha. Miss Norwood played Moesha, the main character. Moesha is a young teen who deals with the same problems teens have. Her friends are the most important thing in her life. The show first aired in Janurary 1995 on UPN and soon became the most watched show on the television network.

In 1997, Whitney Houston called Brandy and asked her to be a part of her project, which was a remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, planned to be release as a telefilm. Brandy accepted the offer and played Cinderella. The made-for-TV movie was Disney's most watched telefilm. It caught over one million viewers.

In April of the same year, Brandy was called onstage during a Gospel concert. She suddenly got scared of touring and recording another album. She decided to put on hold her music career for good.

Almost three years after the release of the first album, the record company called Sonja Norwood and began to put pressure to Brandy to record her next album. She finally decided to go back in the studio in August 1997. After recording four songs, the young female thinks the whole thing is crap and she stops recording. Thousands of dollars were spent for nothing.

Fortunately, Brandy returned in the studio in Fall '97 to start recording her sophomore album--again. This time, Brandy hired a new production team. She co-wrote and produced six tracks on the album. About nine months later, in June 1998, Brandy finally released her second effort, Never S-A-Y Never. The smash hit The Boy Is Mine, duet with Monica, stayed number one on the Billboard charts for seven weeks consecutived and earned a Grammy in 1999. Other hits from Never S-A-Y Never, including Have You Ever, Top Of The World, Almost Doesn't Count and U Don't Know Me also topped the charts. Brandy's sophomore album has been certified five times platinum since its release.

Even though Cinderella was considered as a movie, Brandy really made it to the big screen in summer 1998 with an important role in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, the sequel to Wes Craven's I Know What You Did Last Summer. The horror movie was also starring Jennifer Love Hewitt as Julie James, the main character, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Mekhi Phifer, who also played the boy in the video for "The Boy Is Mine."


A year after the release of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, it was Diana Ross's turn to call Brandy and ask her to play in a telefilm. This time, the movie was called "Double Platinum" and premiered in May 1999. Brandy was playing Kayla Harris, a 18-year-old girl whose mother abandoned her 18 years ago to become a superstar. Brandy was also asked to perform on VH1's Divas Live '99. She accepted and went on stage with multi-platinum female artists such as Whitney Houston, Faith Hill and Mary J. Blige.

During the summer of 1999, Brandy was named International spokes person by the UNICEF, won a 1999 Teen Choice Award for Best Female Music Artist and went on a worlwide tour until early August. She then started to shoot new episodes for Moesha.

In January 2000, Brandy collapsed during a Moesha shoot. She was transported to a hospital in California and stayed there for about a week. Doctors delcared she's been suffering from dehydration and that's what caused Brandy to collapse on the floor. She then had to rest for 3 weeks. Moesha shoots were postponed.

Now that almost four years have passed since the release of her second effort, Brandy is back and focuses now on her third album, set "Full Moon," scheduled for a March 5th release. Warryn Campbell, Rodney Jerkins, Mike City, The Neptunes, Soulshock & Karlin, as well as Brandy herself, produced the album. Norwood also keeps modeling for CoverGirl and signed a contrat with DKNY Jeans a year ago. She focused heself on her acting career for two years with Moesha, and lent her voice to the new WB animated movie Osmosis Jones. We still haven't heard completely about Brandy, and she definitely has more things to show us...

Credit: him.muchmusic.net