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With multi-platinum success straight out of the gate, R&B/pop vocalist/songwriter Ciara jumped directly into a chart-topping music career when her first single arrived in 2004, and rode that initial wave for years to come. Early connections with bigger names in the music industry worked in tandem with her burning talent for both songcraft and performance, earning the singer Grammy recognition and multi-platinum record sales from the very beginning. Ciara's time at the top of the charts lasted around five years, and she built upon that early fame by branching out into production, modeling, and acting, as well as collaborating with Missy Elliott, Ludacris, Timbaland, and many others among the biggest names of her time. Though her personal life saw many massive shifts, music always came first for Ciara as she moved from the rowdy crunk fun of her debut album, Goodies, to more nuanced and sometimes socially conscious singles such as "Like a Boy," to the vulnerable songwriting of her eponymous 2013 album. She celebrated 15 years in music in 2019 with Beauty Marks and returned in 2023 with another independent release, CiCi, an EP of largely uptempo feel-good material.

Ciara Princess Harris was born in Austin, Texas, in 1985 into a military family that moved around for the better part of her childhood. The family lived in New York, California, Germany, and multiple other locales before landing in Atlanta, Georgia. Despite early ambitions to be a lawyer, her love of music grew and she worked hard in her teen years as a member of the group Hearsay before they disbanded. While still in high school, she began writing songs for other artists and befriended producer Jazze Pha, who helped her orchestrate a record deal with LaFace Records in 2003. The next year, she began recording demos with songwriter/producer Sean Garrett, who was fresh off the success of Usher's monster hit "Yeah!," which he co-wrote. The two worked up a demo for a song called "Goodies," and when Lil Jon heard the demo he saw enormous potential and agreed to produce the song, calling on Petey Pablo to do a featured guest spot on the single.

"Goodies," Ciara's debut single, was released in June 2004 and had a staggeringly quick rise to the top of the charts around the world, hailed by some as the anthem of the summer. The song put Ciara's name on the map and paved the way for her debut album, also titled Goodies, to be released in September of that year. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart, quickly going multi-platinum. The follow-up singles "1, 2 Step" featuring Missy Elliott and "Oh" featuring Ludacris both broke the Top Five in the U.S. in 2005. By the end of the year, Ciara was featured on Elliott's own "Lose Control" and joined Gwen Stefani on tour. Moreover, Ciara was nominated for four Grammy Awards. She was up for Best New Artist, while "1, 2 Step" was among the songs nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. "Lose Control" was nominated for Best Rap Song and took the award for Best Short Form Music Video.

Her sophomore album, The Evolution, arrived in December 2006, charting immediately and going on to sell certified-platinum numbers. The record spawned the singles "Get Up" featuring Chamillionaire, "Promise," and "Like a Boy." Performances in promotion of The Evolution included multiple festival appearances, a headlining tour, and a slot as a support act for a U.K. leg of Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad world tour. The May 2009 release of Fantasy Ride, Ciara's third album, was preceded by a few delays, including a pre-release single that failed to catch fire. Fantasy Ride was, nonetheless, her most star-studded album to date. "Love Sex Magic," featuring Justin Timberlake, became her fifth headlining Top Ten pop hit and was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Continued work with the-Dream developed into the album Basic Instinct, released in December 2010 and featuring the-Dream and associate Christopher "Tricky" Stewart as executive producers. It was her first LP to peak outside the Top Ten of the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

For her self-titled fifth album, released in July 2013, she reconnected with LaFace co-founder L.A. Reid and moved to the Epic label. Thanks to the certified gold single "Body Party," it debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. An engagement to collaborator Future, the birth of the couple's son, and the couple's split all occurred prior to the May 2015 release of Jackie, Ciara's sixth album, named after her mother. Shortly before the release of Jackie, Ciara began dating Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, and the two were married in July 2016. They had a daughter in the spring of 2017 as plans were underway for the recording of Ciara's then-untitled seventh studio album. In July 2018, the first evidence of that record emerged with the release of the single "Level Up," which landed at number four on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart. The following May, she released her seventh album, Beauty Marks, through her independent label of the same name. After a few singles during the remainder of 2018 and throughout 2019, Ciara was relatively quiet in 2021. Having struck a joint label deal with Uptown and Republic, she returned in 2022 with the uptempo Coast Contra collaboration "Jump," followed that same year by "Better Thangs" with Summer Walker. Independent again in 2023, Ciara started the year with the empowering "Da Girls," followed by the romantic Chris Brown duet "How We Roll." The latter set up and led CiCi, a lively EP that also featured appearances from Lil Baby and Big Freedia. ~ Fred Thomas

One of the most prominent artists in contemporary R&B, Chris Brown is a dynamic vocalist whose longevity is attributable in part to his natural incorporation of hip-hop and his embrace of club sounds ranging from EDM to Afrobeats. Greeted with comparisons to Michael Jackson and Usher, Brown arrived in 2005 as a teen pop-R&B singer with "Run It!," the first debut single by a male artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 in over a decade. While there was nowhere to go but down, at least in terms of chart positions, Brown was only getting started. Within a few years, he became a well-established star with Chris Brown (2005) and Exclusive (2007), multi-platinum albums that produced five more Top Ten singles, including "Kiss Kiss" and "Forever." As a featured artist or duettist, he added to the count with hits such as "No Air," a ballad with Jordin Sparks. By the end of the decade, Brown underwent a stylistic makeover during which his forebears shifted to the likes of Jodeci, R. Kelly, and 2Pac. This, and a more drastic change in his public image, did little to slow his commercial momentum. His streak of Top Ten albums was sustained with releases such as Graffiti (2009), the Grammy-winning F.A.M.E. (2011), and Fortune (2012). Brown's artistic scope continued to widen with Heartbreak on a Full Moon (2017) and Indigo (2019), albums as long as epic films, and with his tenth and 11th consecutive Top Ten albums, Breezy (2022) and 11:11 (2023). The latter was promoted with some of his warmest singles, including the Grammy-nominated "Summer Too Hot."

Chris Brown is originally from Tappahannock, Virginia. Like a lot of kids born in the mid- to late '80s, he got into his parents' favorite music but eventually fell under the spell of hip-hop. Around the time his voice changed, he discovered his singing ability and switched his focus away from MC'ing. A move to New York led to being discovered by Tina Davis, a Def Jam A&R executive who became the singer's manager shortly after losing her position in the Sony-BMG merger. The Jive label, due in part to its track record with younger artists who had established longevity (like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake), won the bidding war for Brown and lined up several production and songwriting heavy weights, including Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox, Sean Garrett, and Scott Storch, for his self-titled first album. An immediate Top Ten hit when it was released in 2005, Chris Brown not only featured the number one "Run It!" but two other Top Ten singles in "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" and "Say Goodbye." Brown was subsequently nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best New Artist. Exclusive, released in 2007 and a bit of a departure from the wholesome image presented throughout his debut, was even more successful, featuring the number one single "Kiss Kiss" and two other Top Five hits. Yet another Top Five hit came with "No Air," a duet with Jordin Sparks that appeared on Sparks' own self-titled album. Brown also co-wrote "Disturbia," a number one hit for Rihanna.

In March 2009, Brown was charged with felonious assault of Rihanna, an altercation that had prevented his then-partner from taking the stage at the Grammy Awards. Brown was scheduled to perform as well, but he did not appear and maintained a low profile for several months. A fairly substantial backlash resulted in Brown's songs being pulled from rotation on several radio stations. Ultimately, however, it had little bearing on the progress of his music career and side acting gigs. The week before the December release of his third album, Graffiti, the single "I Can Transform Ya" was well on its way to reaching the Top 20 of the Hot 100, and his acting roles -- which had already included spots in Stomp the Yard and a recurring role on The O.C. -- hadn't shown any sign of drying up. Graffiti fell considerably short of gold-selling status, but it was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Contemporary R&B Album, and a Tank collaboration, "Take My Time," was nominated for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Weeks after the 2011 Grammy Awards ceremony, Brown released his fourth album, F.A.M.E., which already had four singles on the charts. That record topped the Billboard 200 and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts, and it took the 2012 Grammy for Best R&B Album. During the ceremony, he performed a medley of "Beautiful People" and "Turn Up the Music," the latter of which previewed Fortune, his fifth album, released in May 2012 and an immediate chart-topper in the U.S. A sequence of several singles that began with "Fine China" preceded X, released in September 2014. Less inspired by European dance-pop and more R&B-oriented than his previous release, the album included contributions from R. Kelly, Usher, and Lil Wayne, among many others. Four of its singles peaked within the R&B Top Ten. X was only five months old when Brown and Tyga, who had previously worked together on one of those hits -- "Loyal," as well as the earlier "Deuces" -- teamed up for Fan of a Fan: The Album. By the end of 2015, Brown released Royalty, his seventh proper album, which was propped up by the Top 20 pop hit "Back to Sleep."

Brown cranked out material in larger volumes and made more featured appearances through the end of the 2010s. Heartbreak on a Full Moon arrived in October 2017 with 45 songs on its deluxe edition. It entered the Billboard 200 at number three, making it the artist's eighth consecutive Top Ten album. The following year, Brown appeared on a few high-profile collaborative singles, highlighted by Lil Dicky's "Freaky Friday," another Top Ten hit.

In June 2019, Brown delivered his ninth solo album, the chart-topping double-length Indigo. A track from the LP, "No Guidance," was nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Song. The commercial mixtape Slime & B, a collaboration with Young Thug, followed in May 2020 and hit number 24 on the Billboard 200.

Brown returned in June 2022 with the number four hit Breezy. Aiming to relate more directly to the women in his audience with an emphasis on slow jams and ballads, he also added the likes of Ella Mai and H.E.R. to a supporting cast that included WizKid, Jack Harlow, and Lil Durk. Despite the LP's many guests, the unassisted "Iffy" and "WE (Warm Embrace)" were its two first singles to hit the Hot 100.

Brown stayed busy in 2023, teaming up with Fridayy on the R&B anthem "Don't Give It Away," appearing on Chlöe Bailey's "How Does It Feel," and giving fans a sneak peek at his forthcoming 11th long-player with "Summer Too Hot" and the Ciara collaboration "How We Roll." 11:11, including additional collaborations with Davido, Lojay, and Future, entered the Billboard 200 at number nine upon release that November, earning a Grammy nomination for its lead single. A deluxe version of the album spawned the 2024 Hot 100 hit "Residuals." ~ Andy Kellman