Ne-Yo Biography

Biography

Fresh from his performance as an opening act for LL Cool J's Custom Concert aired via Oxygen by March 18, 2006, Ne-Yo probably could become one of the most frequent-faces-to-appear-on-TV of the year as he really has such a hectic broadcasting schedule to undergo for at least the next two months. Not only slated to pop up on NBC's long-running "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" by March 27, this gifted performer also has been set to greet his fans through "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "Showtime at the Apollo" together with Ghostface Killah in April followed by that on "Teen People's 25 Under 25" special by May. As if it was still not enough, he furthermore has confirmed to take part in "Steppin' Up: Save the Last Dance 2" (2006) of which soundtrack he has worked on persistently.

Raised solely by his mother, Ne-Yo was born Shaffer Chimere Smith on October 18, 1982 in Arkansas and later was taken to Las Vegas, Nevada where he began to develop his skills in writing songs. For some years, he kept standing behind the scene to compose great lyrics for R&B artists like Christina Milian, Faith Evans, and B2K, even helped launching ...

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Mario's career through his work on the younger guy's single, "Let Me Love You", in 2004. Actually, the desire of being a singer had also taken roots within his heart as he once signed a record deal with Columbia Records only to find his album project being disappointingly shelved for more than a year, prompting him to leave the company empty-handed.

In his effort to find another label, Ne-Yo managed to impress Tina Davis of Def Jam Records who immediately brought him to the Island Def Jam Music Group chairman, Antonio 'L.A.' Reid and within a short time, a recording contract was offered. Collaborated with Peedi Crakk, he then released debut single "Stay" in 2005 followed by another entitled "So Sick" in late January 2006. The former did quite well in Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart, but it was the latter one that truly catapulted the versatile artist to widespread popularity as it wonderfully topped three Billboard charts of Hot 100, Pop 100, and Hot Digital Songs.

Riding on the success of "So Sick", Ne-Yo confidently launched his studio album, "In My Own Words", on February 28, 2006 and quickly saw the satisfying result when it amazingly debuted on number one in ...