Ciara

Ciara was born in Texas on October 25, 1985. Due to her father’s military profession, she used to change places when she was a girl until her family settled down in Atlanta. When a child, Ciara did not want to be a singer preferring the top model career. She had a required sexual appearance and energy for this which she widely used when heading the school cheerleading band. However, the brilliant story of Destiny’s Child motivated her to turn to the music stage. Ciara started with membership in the band Hera Say. Aged sixteen, the girl made up her mind to leave the group and start a solo career.

A great boost to her development was meeting the producer Jazze Pha, prominent for the collaboration with 2pac, Ludacris and a number of other stars. This man did not do much himself to produce Ciara’s songs, yet he helped her find the right people and the right label. Pha and Ciara made only one big song, 1,2 Step. It was enough to attract the attention of Lil Jon who saw a very promising star in Ciara and agreed to work on her debut album Goodies. First, it was promoted by the single Goodies issued in summer 2004, a sensational R&B hit to top charts in a row of countries. In autumn of the same year Ciara released the same titled long player. It appeared a splendid example of a debut record. In the States alone, the album sold over two million copies. The success was explainable. The preparation of Goodies involved Missy Elliott, Ludacris, Petey Pablo and R. Kelly. Besides, the material of the record was thoroughly designed and considered. It was perfectly performed by the young singer who frankly sang about the troubles easy to understand by teenagers, the widest possibly audience.

The second single by Ciara, 1, 2 Step, was recorded with Missy Elliott and hit the stores in the early 2005 to reach the second place in the American charts. In the UK, the song was also warmly welcomed and given the third place in the charts. In May 2005, Ciara presented her third single, Oh, to get spotted in the UK and the US charts once again. Shortly after, the videos for the three singles were featured on Ciara’s first DVD. As a proficient solo artist, Ciara became regularly invited to participate in other projects. She took part in the recording of Missy Elliott's Lose Control for the album The Cookbook. She also collaborated with Bow Wow to perform the single Like You from his long player Wanted. In December 2005 Ciara opened the Harajuku Lovers Tour together with Gwen Stefani. She also toured with Bow Wow and Chris Brown. After that, Ciara and Bow Wow regularly appeared in headlines as a new super star couple. Nevertheless, their relations came to an end quickly, allegedly through the fault of Bow Wow.

Ciara won her first Grammy in February 2006 for the video she made along with Missy Elliott for Lose Control. Following that, she participated in the recording of the charity single I Have This Dream with Michael Jackson as producer. Following contributions to projects of other artists, advertisements and soundtracks, Ciara came back to the studio to prepare the second album by the end of 2006. Evolution was again executed by top experts and was a good commercial move. However, experts agreed that it lacked the sincerity and youth emotiveness of the debut effort. Yet it never affected the sales of the albums easily reaching the platinum status. The third album titled Fantasy Ride was released in 2009, and that record turned out to be very successful. The singer did not make her fans to wait for a long time for the following studio attempt: Basic Instinct was issued in 2010. It is definitely worth mentioning that Basic Instinct got fair reviews from the critics. Moreover, Ludacris and Usher collaborated with Ciara during the creation of that album: they took part in the recording of Ride and Turn It Up. Sure, such joint work says a lot about the highest level of Basic Instinct.