Amerie

Amerie

Amerie Mi Marie Rogers (born January 12, 1980^[1][2] in Fitchburg, Massachusetts), known professionally as Ameriie^[3], is a two time Grammy-nominated American singer, songwriter, producer and actress. She debuted in 2002 with the album All I Have, primarily co-written and produced by Rich Harrison, releasing her debut hit single "Why Don't We Fall In Love" and "Talkin' to Me". In 2005, Amerie released her sophomore effort featuring the hit "1 Thing", the lead single from her second album, Touch, which introduced elements of D.C.'s go-go, and became her biggest hit to date. The last single released from Touch was the self-titled "Touch", which became an international hit in other countries. Her junior effort Because I Love It would become an international only release in 2007. Amerie released her fourth studio album titled In Love & War on November 3, 2009. The singles released were "Why R U"^[4], "Heard 'Em All" featuring Lil Wayne^[5], "Pretty Brown" featuring Trey Songz,^[6] and "More than Love" featuring Fabolous. She has sold over 4 million albums worldwide.

Rogers was born to Korean mother, artist Mi Suk ^{[7] [8]}, and African American father, Charles ^[7][9]. A few months after she was born, the Rogers family moved to her mother’s native Korea, where Amerie lived for three years. Her father, Charles, was a chief warrant officer ^[7], so Amerie traveled to and lived in many different places, including South Korea, Alaska, Texas, Virginia, and Germany. He now works for the U.S. Intelligence Division United States military. She has a younger sister, Angela ^[10][11], who is now her lawyer. She finally settled in Arlington, VA, which she considers her hometown. Amerie describes her parents as conservative, protective, traditional Christians. Growing up, she and her sister were forbidden to leave the house or use the phone on school days. Amerie enrolled at Georgetown University to study literature, and was in Navy ROTC: “I was in the Navy ROTC. My dad didn’t force me into it or anything. I joined so I could afford an education.” She quit ROTC after her sophomore year, and graduated with a BA degree in English and Fine Arts minor in design.

Amerie's first language is Korean; however, after the family left Korea, Amerie's mother made a conscious effort to limit the use of Korean with her daughters out of fear that it would impede their development of English proficiency. In an interview with KoreAm Journal, Amerie stated that she is now only "conversational" in the Korean language and speaks it at home with her mother, Angela, and extended Korean family members ^[12].

Amerie also bears a tattoo featuring her given name in Hangul (에므리 pronounced Eh Muh Ree) on her lower back, which can be seen in the music video for "1 Thing". Amerie is noted for signing autographs in Hangul with her Korean name when giving autographs.

While studying at Georgetown, she befriended a Washington D.C. club promoter who eventually put her in touch with producer Rich Harrison ^[13]. Rich Harrison--who had just worked on Mary J. Blige's recent albums Mary (album) and No More Drama--began making/developing demos with Amerie. This led to Amerie's first record deal with Rise Entertainment ^{[citation needed]} in collaboration with Columbia Records^[13].

In the spring of 2002, Rise/Columbia released Amerie's debut single, "Why Don't We Fall in Love." The single reached number twenty-three on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a top ten hit on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The song created a nice buzz for her album All I Have, which was certified gold by the RIAA. The second and final single to be released was "Talkin' To Me," a moderate hit peaking at number eighteen on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

In 2003, Amerie covered the song "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross for the soundtrack to the film, Maid in Manhattan. She was featured on LL Cool J's "Paradise," which peaked at number fourteen on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. She was also featured on DJ Kayslay's "Too Much For Me"; on his May 2003 album Streetsweeper Vol. 1. Amerie appeared on Bow Wow's 3rd album Unleashed singing the hook on "To My Mama". She was also featured on the Honey (soundtrack) soundtrack to the Jessica Alba dance movie Honey (2003 film) in the Rodney Jerkins produced hit "When I Think Of You".

On April 26, 2005, Amerie released her second album, Touch. As with All I Have, the album was co-written and produced by mentor Rich Harrison, who contributed seven (new) tracks to the record; additional productions came from Lil Jon, Bryce Wilson, Red Spyda, and Dre & Vidal. Unlike on her first album, Amerie co-wrote every track but one, "Come with Me", which Harrison wrote. Touch debuted and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and number three on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and it was certifed gold by the RIAA in August that year. It received two Grammy Award nominations in 2006: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for its lead single, "1 Thing", and Best Contemporary R&B Album.

Along with Touch, Amerie's biggest hit came with "1 Thing", which was also featured on the soundtrack to Hitch, a romantic comedy film starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes. Producer Rich Harrison sampled the distinctive main drum-and-guitar loops of the song from a 1970 version of Oh! Calcutta!'s theme song—retitled "Oh, Calcutta!"—by funk group The Meters. The song was later certified platinum for selling over 300,000 units in downloads and became Amerie's first top ten hit in the U.S., where it peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. "1 Thing" also earned several awards and nominations: two nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards—Best Female Video and Best Choreography—and four nominations for the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards—Best R&B/Soul Single, Solo, R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year, Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video, and Best R&B/Soul or Rap Dance Cut. At the 2005 VIBE Awards, Amerie took home Club Banger of the Year for her hit. "1 Thing" also spawned into a variety of remixes by rappers such as Eve, Fabolous, and Jay-Z. In 2009, "1 Thing" placed at number 6 on The Root's list of Top 10 Hip-Hop/R&B Songs of the 2000s^[14].

In late 2005, Amerie released Touch's second single, "Touch", and was featured alongside Fat Joe on "I Don't Care", the lead single of Ricky Martin's album Life. Though the latter one entered the top twenty in several European countries and Australia, Touch's title track failed to reprise the success of "1 Thing"—it did not enter the Billboard Hot 100 (it peaked at number ninety-five on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart), and reached number nineteen on the UK Singles Chart. "Talkin' About", the third single, was released only for promo.

Amerie's third album, Because I Love It, was her first album not to feature writing and production from her long-time collaborator, friend, and producer Rich Harrison. Other producers—such as Bryan-Michael Cox, The Buchanans, Len Nicholson; were enlisted to work with Amerie. "Take Control", which was co-produced by Mike Caren, Amerie and Nicholson and co-written by Amerie and Cee-Lo Green, was the first single from the album and was released in the U.S. in late 2006. It failed to chart on the Hot 100, reaching the lower half of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. Though, the single gave Amerie her second Top 10 hit in the UK.

Because I Love It was released in Europe in May 2007 and was scheduled to be released in the U.S. in 2007 (the release of the album made the Blender magazine list of "25 Reasons to Love '07", ranking nineteenth^[15]), but its release date was pushed back numerous times due to the ever changing climate at Sony music with Rick Rubin coming in. Amerie and her management team held ^{[citation needed]} Sony from releasing her LP domestically; it is available only as an import and through a limited release of the album in U.S. Wal-Mart stores. Allmusic described the album as "enthuastic", "unwavering", and being able to "lasso each song, whether it requires salt, sugar, heartache, delight, or any combination thereof" ^[16].

In early 2007, it was reported that Korean pop sensation Se7en would collaborate with Amerie on the album ^[17]. She has stated several times in interviews that she has been very eager to work with Korean pop/R&B singers, being a fan of K-pop herself. It was later reported that the re-worked version of "Take Control" would be featured on the Asian editions of the album Because I Love It. A limited amount of promotional albums that were released in Japan and Korea in late April include the remix featuring Se7en. There was also talk of Amerie releasing a remix of "Crush" as the album's third single. But an official release never came through.

In late 2007, Amerie accepted an offer to appear in advertisement celebrating the 10th anniversary of the world's second largest cable provider, AXN as they had previously bought the rights to her single Gotta Work for an estimated £800,000 for usage in their ad campaign. She was paid an additional £400,000 for actually appearing in the commercial which was broadcast to just under a billion viewers across Asia (Brunei, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam).

In late 2007, Entertainment Weekly reported that Amerie had left her label Columbia Records. In April 2008, Amerie's name was removed from the label's roster. She signed a label/production deal with her imprint Feenix Rising Entertainment, through the Island Def Jam Music Group. On her Twitter account, Amerie revealed that she has been secretly recording new music in Atlanta, Georgia; and that the album will be in fact a concept album. The album was executively produced by LA Reid, manager LG Nicholson, and Amerie herself.

The album featured production from The Buchanans, Warryn Campbell, Bryan-Michael Cox, Sean Garrett, Eric Hudson, Jim Jonsin, Jonas Jeberg, Karma, Rico Love, M-Phazes, Teddy Riley, and TrackNova. Rich Harrison did not make any contributions because he has been busy with his new group Richgirl, although Amerie hoped to work with him on her fifth album. Amerie announced that her first single off the album was "Why R U", produced by Amerie & The Buchanans ^[4]. The single premiered on radio in NYC on Funkmaster Flex's radio show where he played the record for 20 minutes straight stating "He never thought this record would ever be flipped so well You got one Amerie!" ^[18]. The song appeared online the week of May 4, 2009 and received rave reviews^{[citation needed]}. The dual second singles are "Heard 'Em All"^[5] and "Pretty Brown" featuring Trey Songz ^[19].

Amerie is currently in the studio working on her fifth studio album, Cymatika Vol. 1, to be released in 2011. The album title is based on the word Cymatics, which means the study of visible sound and vibration. On May 20, 2010 she revealed a new song via twitter titled "Who's Gonna Love You"^[20]. The Inkredibles produced track was praised by Rap-Up for "boasting her distinctive funk-pop sound and brash energy"^[21] Amerie described the album as having an "international" sound.^[22] Amerie has changed her name revealing an "I" to her name to reflect positive energy. She announced the change to Rap-Up.com last month, but didn’t go public with it until her new Twitter page (@ItsAmerie) was set up. In addition to changing her name, Amerie has also become engaged to her longtime manager LG Nicholson. The couple is planning to wed in 2011.^[23] Amerie’s 2007 single “Gotta Work” is featured in a promo for the new season of AMC’s Emmy-winning series “Mad Men.” ^[24] Amerie signs with PR company goes by the name Lucid Group and their clients include a host of high profile names in the music industry such as Alexandra Burke and Shakira. Shoshanna Stone has even shed some light on the direction of Amerie’s upcoming new album ‘Cymatica Vol. 1′ as well as the upcoming new single. “I am so excited to be working with the super talented Amerie again! I love this new thing of being able to look after non-Sony artists” she says “I love her too! New album is a pop album and first single is amazing!”^[25][26] Not only did Amerie throw an extra “i” in her name to switch things up a bit, but the “1 Thing” singer took her image overhaul one step further. She recently debuted her new look at a Grey Goose event in Dallas, Texas, dying her luscious dark locks platinum blonde. “I’ve always wanted to go platinum blonde, and I figured I’d finally just do it,” Amerie exclusively tells Rap-Up.com of her new ’do. “One of the things that inspired me are photos I’ve seen of children in the Solomon Islands. They are very brown-skinned, and a lot of them grow white-blonde hair naturally. The contrast in dark skin tone and extremely light hair is really beautiful to me. So I just went for it!” The Grammy nominee is currently in the studio recording Cymatika Vol. 1, the follow-up to last year’s In Love & War, which will showcase a more “international, worldly” sound.^[27] Amerie’s fiance and manager LG Nicholson is executive producing his Fiancee new album ‘Cymatika Vol. 1′ and has name dropped track titles for songs recorded so far. The songs recorded for the project include edgy new track titles such as ‘Outside Your Body’, ‘Run For Cover’ and ‘Intimidated’. It’s not yet known who produced the cuts and what musical direction they fall in but he says “I’m very proud of Amerie. I’m loving ‘Cymatika’. It feels so good!”^[28] Amerie exclusively previewed some lyrics from the new album via Twitter. She revealed them separately but heres a taste of what her fans were able to experience, "Systematically set 2 dull your senses/all the smoke & the mirrors make it hard 2 see/if u don't go along with the consensus/then you're crazy but maybe that's the way to be...free #Cymatika." "Everything is beautiful/Outside your body/& anywhere u wanna go/U only have until infinity... #Cymatika."^[29][30] Many fans have specatulated that the lyrics are for the track titled "Outside Your Body", but little knowledge has been revealed since. Amerie wants to keep it a secret for the fans. The track will be included on Amerie's fifth studio LP, unless she reveals otherwise.^[31] Amerie’s manager and fiance has confirmed that her first single will be released in 60 days internationally: “1st single 60 days away!! US, UK, Paris, Japan, Korea get ready!!! We have sooo much Seoul!!! Stay tuned!!” There is no word on the title of the track or who produced it. But it is indeed marked for November release. The track will be the first single to be lifted from her new album ‘Cymatika Vol. 1′, set to drop in stores in the first quarter of 2011.^[32] Amerie reveals more news on her upcoming new album, ‘Cymatika Vol. 1′. ‘Cymatika’ is said to be a “conceptual” album about “what it means to be human and remembering our spiritual essence”. It will also combine “a fusion of New Wave, Acid House and Trance”. The songstress has enlisted house DJ Felix Da Housecat to work on the project, with the first single from the LP scheduled to be released in mid November. ^[33]

• 2002: All I Have
• 2005: Touch
• 2007: Because I Love It
• 2009: In Love & War
• 2011: Cymatika Vol. 1

In 2003 Amerie launched the brand-new show on BET called The Center^[34].

Amerie landed her first acting role as Mia Thompson in the 2004 Forest Whitaker directed romantic comedy First Daughter alongside Katie Holmes, Michael Keaton, Lela Rochon, and Marc Blucas.

Year	Title	Role
2003	The Center[34]	Hostess (TV series)
2004	First Daughter	Mia Thompson

• BET Awards: Best Female R&B Artist (nominated)
• Soul Train Music Awards: Best Female R&B/Soul Single "Why Don't We Fall in Love" (nominated)
• Soul Train Music Awards: "Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist" ("Why Don't We Fall in Love") (winner)
• Soul Train Awards: Best Female R&B/Soul Album, All I Have (nominated)
• Image Awards: Outstanding New Artist (nominated)

• Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards: "Entertainer of the Year" (winner)
• VIBE Awards: "Club Banger of the Year" ("1 Thing") (winner)
• BET Awards: Video of the Year "1 Thing" (nominated)
• BET Awards: Best Female R&B Artist (nominated)
• Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards: Best R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year "1 Thing" (nominated)
• Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards: Best R&B/Soul or Rap Dance Cut "1 Thing" (nominated)
• Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards: Best R&B/Soul Single "1 Thing" (nominated)
• Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards: Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video "1 Thing" (nominated)
• MOBO Awards: Best Song "1 Thing" (nominated)
• MTV Video Music Awards: Best Female Video "1 Thing" (nominated)
• MTV Video Music Awards: Best Choreography "1 Thing" (nominated)

• ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards: "Top Soundtrack Song of the Year" ("1 Thing") (winner)
• Grammy Awards: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance "1 Thing" (nominated)
• Grammy Awards: Best Contemporary R&B Album, Touch (nominated)

• MOBO Awards: Best Song ("Take Control") (nominated)
• MTV Europe Music Awards: Ultimate Urban Artist (nominated)

• Ameriie on Twitter
• Amerie Personal website
• Amerie Label website
• Amerie at Island Def Jam Music Group
• Former Label Columbia Records' Amerie website
• Amerie at AllMusic
• Amerie at IMDb