Amerie

Born Amerie Mi Marie Rogers in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, to a Korean mother and an African-American father who served as a career military officer, pop-oriented R&B singer and songwriter Amerie spent her childhood on bases stretching from Alaska to Germany. Early exposure to the classical arts came through her mother, while her father fostered a love of music; she also took up dance lessons young and entered numerous talent competitions. Once she finished high school, the family relocated to Virginia, and she enrolled at Georgetown University, ultimately earning a degree in English and Fine Arts. While based in Washington, D.C., she connected with producer Rich Harrison, whose prior credits included work with Mary J. Blige, and they began crafting demo recordings together. Those sessions secured a contract first with Rise Entertainment and subsequently with Columbia Records.

Rise/Columbia issued her debut single, “Why Don’t We Fall in Love,” during spring 2002. By July the full-length All I Have had arrived, with the track having already climbed into the top 20 on both the R&B/hip-hop chart and the Billboard Hot 100. Her second album, Touch, followed in April 2005; it reached number five on the Billboard album chart and spawned the chart-topping single “1 Thing.” The project marked a clear advance over her debut, largely because she contributed songwriting to nearly every selection. May 2007 brought the release of her third album, Because I Love It, widely regarded as her strongest and most colorful effort to date; although it entered the U.K. top 20, Columbia ultimately shelved plans for a domestic launch. After parting ways with the label, she signed with Def Jam in 2008 and delivered her fourth album, In Love & War, the following November. It opened at number three on the R&B chart yet fell sharply afterward amid limited radio support.

Having altered the spelling of her stage name to Ameriie, she later issued the singles “What I Want” in 2014 and “Mustang” in 2015, along with the EP Drive, all through her own Feenix Rising imprint.