"No matter what time of day or night it's true,
I wanna be down..."

At the tender age of 4 Brandy Rayana Norwood  born February 11, 1979 in McComb, Mississippi knew she wanted to be a star just like her idol, Whitney Houston. Her lineage to the music world runs deep as a cousin of blues singer Bo Diddley and rapper Snoop Dogg. When her father, former R&B singer and choir director Willie Norwood was offered a job in Carson, California the family, including mom Sonja Bates-Norwood and Brandy’s two younger siblings, used the opportunity as a chance to jump start their children’s careers.

Throughout her early years Brandy became a consummate performer singing backup for numerous pop and R&B groups in the Los Angeles area while performing solo at functions. One of these functions was a party held by Atlantic Records where an executive with the label immediately became interested in her style. Soon after that party and at the tender age of 14 years old Brandy had her first record contract.

Her first album Brandy was a challenge that ultimately paid off with 4 hit singles including "I Wanna Be Down", "Baby", "Best Friend", and "Brokenhearted", two Grammy nominations, two Billboard Awards and went triple-platinum. Her force in the music industry gained momentum and she took it by the reins.

At age 11 she had begun acting on the sitcom Thea and with the hit album her star only became brighter. In 1996 she landed the lead role on the UPN teen sitcom Moesha which became a hit until it’s 5th season when a controversial storyline revealing Moesha’s father had been unfaithful and fathered a child, played by Brandy’s real life brother Ray J. Brandy and her mother had taken more control over the show’s storyline’s in the last two seasons and the directions that were taken alienated much of their audience. Sheryl Lee Ralph, who played Moesha’s stepmother, was so angered by the direction she left the show and only returned for occasional guest spots when absolutely necessary. The series finale was a cliffhanger with one character kidnapped and the possibility that Moesha had become pregnant. UPN decided not to renew the series and fans were left without answers.

While shooting Moesha Brandy recorded the song "Sittin' Up In My Room" for the soundtrack of Waiting To Exhale which went to number #2. In 1997, the singer/actress played the title role in a TV update of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. The classic fairy tale set to music gave her the chance to live out a dream to act and sing alongside her idol, Whitney Houston.ABC aired it in the summer of 1997.  Brandy scored big in 1998 with "The Boy Is Mine," a  hip-hop duet that paired her with fellow young R&B vocalist Monica. It quickly became a #1 hit and also won Brandy a Grammy award.

Brandy followed this success with another top-selling album, Never Say Never. The still-developing young artist blossomed as a songwriter on this album, co-writing 6 of its 14 songs. She also co-starred with fellow teen idol Jennifer Love Hewitt that year in the successful horror sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. She ended 1998 with a Top-10 hit in the form of "Have You Ever?" In 1999, Brandy shared the stage with such luminaries as Cher, Whitney Houston and Tina Turner in VH-1's Divas Live special. She also co-starred with Diana Ross that year in the music-themed television film Double Platinum.

While producing her third studio album, Full Moon, Brandy became romantically involved with producer Robert "Big Bert" Smith and the couple secretly married in the summer of 2001 and in February of 2002 it was announced she was expecting her first child. She participated in an MTV reality series called Special Delivery which followed the birth of her daughter Sy'rai Iman Smith born on June 16, 2002. Shortly after the birth it was announced she was divorcing Smith. It was soon discovered they had never been legally married and the entire thing was a subterfuge to protect her image.

Full Moon was released in March of 2002 and the first single "What About Us?" became an international top 10 hit. Aside from that it was critically panned and did not sell nearly as well as her previous attempts. By 2003 she had settled into motherhood and began dating New York Kicks guard Quentin Richardson. They were soon engaged and Brandy got a tattoo of his face on her back. By October 2005 they had ended their relationship and she had the tattoo transformed into a cat.

Coming back from another long musical hiatus her fourth studio album Afrodisiac was released in June of 2004 and marked her first and only album while under the management of Benny Medina. The relationship ended quickly due to Brandy’s feeling he had mishandled the publicity, botched the release of the single and failed to secure a co-headlining tour with Usher. She went back to being managed by her mother of whom she said “Nobody out there can match her passion for me”.  While critically acclaimed the album was her least successful of her career selling only 500,000 copies domestically and more or less being ignored my international markets. By the end of 2004 she requested and received a release form her Atlantic Records contract which resulted in the 2005 release The Best of Brandy.

In 2006 Brandy was back on television as one of three judges on the first season of the Simon Cowell produced hit America’s Got Talent. While she was scheduled to return for the 2007 season she stepped down due to personal issues and was replaced with Sharon Osbourne. The personal issues were directly related to the aftermath of a December 30, 2006 traffic accident on a Los Angeles freeway. She was traveling at 65 miles per hour when the traffic in front of her slowed but she did not. Her vehicle struck the one in front of her causing a four car accident that claimed the life of 38-year-old Awatef Aboudihaj. She was later cleared of criminal wrong doing but still faces a civil suit filed by the victim’s husband. It was also later found that Aboudihaj had traces of Marijuana in her system and her driving actually caused the accident.

At the beginning of 2008 Brandy was still hard at work on her new album with her new record company Epic and continues to pursue her acting career. It is doubtful that this is the last we will hear of Brandy as she will surely rise from the ashes once again to surprise us all.