Monica Biography

Marking her comeback with the launching of fourth album �The Makings of Me�, Monica sure has prepared everything possible to once again soar to the spotlight that had embraced her even before she turned twenty years old. To reach that goal, a list of schedule has been arranged neatly for her to carry out following the release of the album, the first being TV appearances on �The Ellen DeGeneres Show� and �The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson� both set to be aired on October 9, 2006. The rest of the month will be spent through a number of live performances around several U.S cities, including those on WLLD Last Damn Show in St. Petersburg, Florida on date 21 and PWR Powerhouse Concert in New York City four days later. Entering November, there will be gigs on KXJM Show in Portland, Oregon and KBXX Car Show in Houston, Texas slated to be held on date 3 and 5, respectively.

Lauded for her incredible vocal chords, Monica was born to Atlanta freight company's mechanic named M.C. Arnold Junior and Marilyn Best, a former church singer and Delta Air Lines customer service representative, on October 24, 1980 in Oak Park, a division of Atlanta, Georgia with full name Monica Denise Arnold. Her passion for music has been flourishing ever since she was still merely a toddler, judging from her eagerness to perform in public at Jones Chapel United Methodist Church at age 2, so it was not really surprising to later see the girl touring as a singer in the gospel choir Charles Thompson and the Majestics by the age of 10. Through the troupe, she then was able to hone her flair effectively which delightfully led her to win some local singing competitions during her early teens.

The achievement Monica tirelessly scored finally reached its culmination when she heeded a suggestion from her cousin Melinda Dancil to enter a talent showcase held at Atlanta's Center Stage Auditorium in 1992. Managed to draw the attention of Rowdy Records exec Dallas Austin after delivering a stunning rendition of Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love Of All" there, she was quickly signed under the label to work on her debut in music industry. It took about three years for the teen to ultimately have it hit the stores, but the long process was indeed paid off as her first single �Don't Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)� made its way to peak on the second rank of The Billboard Hot 100 shortly after its release. Furthermore, it even was certified Platinum by July 1995, the same month her debut album, �Miss Thang�, came to the surface.

Riding high on the sweet outcome of �Don't Take It Personal�, the record resulted satisfying enough for it could break into the top 40 of The Billboard 200 while seating on the seventh place of Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart to later receive Gold status in September the same year. In the meantime, two of its tracks namely �Before You Walk Out of My Life� and �Why I Love You So Much� wonderfully were able to both enter the top 10 of The Billboard Hot 100, all leading Monica to wider notice in the music scene. Everything indeed looked bright for the teen when she shifted into bigger label of Arista Records to again generate another hit through her single for �Space Jam� soundtrack titled �For You I Will� in 1997 while also superbly finishing her study at Atlanta Country Day School with a 4.0 GPA at a mere age of 16.

The strong buzz surrounding her eventually gained momentum in the following year upon the launching of �The Boy Is Mine�, her duet song with McComb-born singer Brandy, in May. Sold over two million copies not long after its unveiling, the composition fantastically spent weeks atop a number of Billboard charts, most notably The Billboard Hot 100 for 13 weeks, undeniably became the biggest hit in the States of the year. Consequently soared to be one of the youngest performers to attain such achievement, Monica smartly used the moment to release her same-titled sophomore album on July 14 and as many had guessed, the work turned out to be another major accomplishment for the beauty. Not only spawned one more #1 tune called �The First Night�, it also instantly went Gold then ultimately triple-Platinum by early 2000.

The success drawn from single �The Boy Is Mine� joyously still continued as Monica entered year 1999, even brought the young singer to encounter her highlight, a Grammy Award she shared with Brandy for winning the Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group category. Despite this attainment, however, she surprisingly chose to afterwards concentrate more on participating in several film soundtracks rather than making her next album, contributing her voice in "I've Got to Have It", the lead single of Big Momma's House soundtrack, in 2000 and �Uh Oh� for �Drumline� in 2002. In between, she eagerly tried her hand at acting and appeared in either small or big screen features like �Boys and Girls� (2000), MTV TV-movie �Love Song� (2000), a 2001 episode in The WB's TV series �Felicity�, plus �The Twins� (2001).

It was not until mid-2003 that Monica ultimately made her comeback into music industry through the arrival of third album �After the Storm�, the new-titled and re-recorded version of her partially scrapped 2002 release "All Eyes On Me." A critically acclaimed work featuring collaborations with Kanye West, Jermaine Dupri, and Jazze Pha among others, the record fared fairly well as it managed to reach a no. 1 peak on The Billboard 200 for one week while spawned two top 10 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks hits namely �So Gone� and �U Should've Known Better.� Later again taking hiatus to give birth to Rodney Ramone Hill III, her first son with fiance Rodney "Rock" Hill Jr., on May 21, 2005, the singer patiently waited for one year before releasing her fourth studio album �The Makings of Me� on October 3, 2006.