Vivian Green

Since first topping Billboard's R&B Adult Songs survey in 2002 with "Emotional Rollercoaster," Vivian Green has sustained a robust presence in adult contemporary R&B while assembling a wide-ranging discography that reveals greater stylistic range than her usual classification suggests. Moving fluidly across jazz, hip-hop soul, and house, the singer has produced a steadily growing body of recordings anchored by the gold-certified A Love Story (2002) and the further Top Ten R&B/hip-hop entries Vivian (2005) and Vivid (2015). The last of these initiated an extended collaboration with producer and co-writer Kwame Holland that has continued through VGVI (2017) and Love Absolute (2020).

Raised in North Philadelphia, Green began singing, playing piano, and composing songs as a child. At 13 she joined the short-lived group Younique, and by 15 she was actively pursuing a solo recording agreement. After declining an offer from Columbia subsidiary Ruffhouse, she contributed the song "Dear God" to Boyz II Men's chart-topping third album, Evolution, and supplied material for Britney Spears' demo tape while still attending high school. Following graduation she earned a living through jazz-club performances and work with a wedding orchestra, provided backing vocals for other vocalists, and joined fellow Philadelphia native Jill Scott on an international tour preserved on Experience: Jill Scott 826+. During this period she also prepared her own demo with assistance from Malik Pendleton and Eric Roberson, which secured a contract with Columbia itself.

Green's debut full-length, A Love Story, appeared in November 2002. Its opening singles, "Emotional Rollercoaster" (co-written with Roberson and Osunlade) and "Fanatic" (a Fred Kenney collaboration), respectively reached number one and 15 on Billboard's adult R&B chart; club remixes likewise propelled both tracks to comparable positions on the dance survey. The album itself peaked at number eight on the R&B/hip-hop chart and earned gold certification the following May. Green subsequently made television and film appearances, delivering "Love for Sale" for the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely and "Every Little Bit Hurts" (originally popularized by Motown's Brenda Holloway) in an episode of American Dreams. She also recorded background vocals for projects by Darius Rucker and Kindred the Family Soul around this time.

Green settled into her pattern of releasing an album every few years with the May 2005 arrival of her second LP, Vivian, which debuted at number five on the R&B/hip-hop chart. Working chiefly with Philadelphia associates such as Scott Storch and James Poyser, she again reached urban adult contemporary and club audiences with "Gotta Go Gotta Leave (Tired)," a Junius Bervine collaboration that topped both the adult R&B and dance charts. Follow-up single "I Like It (But I Don't Need It)" became her third number-one dance hit. Later that year admirer Cyndi Lauper included Green on The Body Acoustic, and the two would perform together on subsequent occasions. In the interim Green also appeared on Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 4 and transferred from Columbia to the eOne label. Her new arrangement quickly produced two albums released in relatively close succession. Beautiful, issued in April 2010, featured an expanded role for Anthony Bell, who co-wrote nearly every song and co-produced the set with Jason Farmer. The Green Room followed in October 2012 with contributions from a wider circle that included Phoe Notes, Steve McKie, and Rex Rideout; featured artists Brian Culbertson and Freeway both reciprocated by placing Green on their own 2012 releases. Beautiful and The Green Room each reached the Top 30 of the R&B/hip-hop chart and extended Green's run of albums that also registered on the Billboard 200.

Throughout the latter half of the 2010s Green formed a close working relationship with veteran songwriter and producer Kwame Holland. Her first project for Holland's Caroline-supported Make Noise imprint, the buoyant Vivid, achieved her highest R&B/hip-hop chart placement since her second album when it entered at number ten in August 2015. Green and Holland maintained their partnership, returning in October 2017 with VGVI. The two albums together generated four charting singles, among them the Maze-referencing "Get Right Back to My Baby" and the Art of Noise-inspired "I Don't Know," both of which reached the Top Ten on the adult R&B chart. Green and Holland next joined forces with SoNo Recording Group for Love Absolute, the singer's seventh album, which arrived in November 2020.