Monica Denise Brown (born October 24, 1980) professionally known as Monica, is an American R&B singer–songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, Monica began performing as a child and became part of a traveling gospel choir, at the age of ten. Guided by producers Dallas Austin and Tim & Bob, she signed with Arista Records at age thirteen and released her debut album Miss Thang in 1995. Its first two singles "Don't Take It Personal" and "Before You Walk out of My Life" made her the youngest recording act to ever have two consecutive chart-topping hits on the US Billboard Top R&B Singles chart.
In 1998, Arnold's second album The Boy Is Mine earned her major international chart success. Pushed by its number-one hit title track, a duet with singer Brandy, won the pair a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, it spawned two further chart-toppers, "The First Night" and "Angel of Mine", and established her position as one of the most successful of the urban R&B female vocalists to emerge in the mid to late-1990s. During the production of her third album All Eyez on Me (2002), Arnold experienced personal struggles and her career went under hiatus. In 2003, her fourth album After the Storm was released on J Records, and after an unsuccessful period, she scored her fifth number one single, "So Gone". Her latest album Still Standing, whose recording was tracked by a BET reality series of the same name, was released in 2010 and produced the hit singles "Everything to Me" and "Love All Over Me", the first of which became Arnold's sixth number one hit.
Arnold has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide, including over 5.1 million units in the United States alone. With a career lasting over 15 years, she became the first artist to top the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. In 2010, Billboard listed Arnold at number 24 on its list of the Top 50 R&B and Hip Hop Artists of the past 25 years.
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