Omarion

Headlining the Scream Tour IV at Cleveland State University's Wolstein Center alongside his best friend, Bow Wow on July 27, 2005, Omarion shared a great result with the young rapper as Bow Wow's 'Let Me Hold You' which he featured in soared to the top spot of Billboard's Rap Singles chart by August. This merely prolonged the string of success he has experienced during the year, mostly through his solo debut album, 'O.' Not only gaining tremendous accomplishment in music, he would also likely to reach the title of a movie star as he was cast in 'The House' (2005).

Born as Omari Ishmael Grandberry on November 12, 1984 in Los Angeles, California, Omarion was raised by his supportive mother, Leslie Burrell. Living among six siblings along with a half brother, he developed a boundless enthusiasm for music at a very young age. A big chance to be a music artist landed on the fourteen-years-old boy when he became the last member of B2K, thus completed the band's formation which already consisted of Lil Fizz, Raz-B and J-Boog. In a short time, B2K rose as one of the most popular American groups during 2002-2003, bringing Omarion to the spotlight.

To everyone's surprise, the band decided to split in January 2004 after they starred together in 'You Got Served' (2004). It was the time Omarion began to focus his attention on a solo career. Carrying out a similar sound and formula like the band had applied before, his debut single entitled 'Never Gonna Let You Go (She's A Keepa)' featuring Big Boi was launched in the early fall of 2004. Looking for another opportunity, he took part in the movie version of 'Fat Albert' and 'The Bernie Mac Show' which both came up in the same year.

On February 22, 2005, he finally released 'O' under Epic Records. Produced by AllStar, The Underdogs, and Corner Boys, five songs of this debut album were co-written by Omarion himself so that he was able to show his fans "a deeper insight of what went on inside his head." The album turned out to score magnificent result as it rocketed to the first rank at the three charts of Billboard, including The Billboard 200. Furthermore, it was later certified gold, making a highlight in his solo career. Omarion afterwards ventured into another field by writing a book about his own life. "There's a lot about me that my fans don't know," he said. "I've been singing and dancing since I was 5 years old and have made a lot of sacrifices. You don't live a normal life when you're in the limelight."

Upon his participation in Live 8 show in July 2005, Omarion was in London when a bomb struck one of its areas on July 7, 2005. A press release from PRWireService stated that this talented African-American pop singer would like his fans to pray for his safety during his trip and returning to home. By the following day, Reuters placed an article contained the announcement of Shana Gilmore, his publicist, which confirmed that Omarion was not injured at all. This led him to receive rough criticism concerning the fake press release. He then proclaimed a denial to any connection with Gilmore while Gilmore herself insisted that she was misquoted and in fact was not Omarion's publicist. Apart from the awful situation he encountered, Omarion has proven that he was able to stand alone, coming out from the shadow of his former band's success. His attainment could be as well was the continuation of what Beyonce Knowles and Justin Timberlake had experienced.

. As he turned 21 in 2006, the former teen heartthrob projected his maturity in sophomore album aptly titled '21'. It could be due to his already prolific resume that the album hit #1 in Billboard Hot 200 while in fact the first single only managed to reach #58 in Hot 100 chart. The prejudice soon faded away with his second single 'Ice Box' that gained a heavy airplay plus a #12 position in Hot 100. His solo career was so far no comparison to his joint project with Bow Wow in song 'Let me Hold You'. The song that became Omarion's first top-ten single by reaching #4 in Billboard 100 might be the reason why he landed another project with Bow Wow to do an entire album together. The joint album is called 'Face/Off'.