Amerie Mi Marie Rogers (born January 12, 1980), better known as Amerie, is a multiracial (African-American & Korean) American R&B singer. She debuted in 2002 with the album All I Have, primarily written and produced by Rich Harrison. "1 Thing", the lead single from her second album, Touch, introduced her native D.C.'s go-go elements, on which she expanded with the 2007 album Because I Love It.
Biography
Rogers was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts to an African-American father and a Korean mother.
Her father works for the U.S.
Intelligence Division United States military, so Amerie traveled to and lived in many different places, including Alaska, Texas, Germany, and South Korea. She has a younger sister, Angela Rogers, who is now her lawyer. She finally settled in Washington, D.C., which she considers her hometown. She started studying at Georgetown University for a degree in English and Fine Arts and graduated in 2000.
Amerie's first language is Korean. However, after the family left Korea, Amerie's mother made a conscious effort to limit the use of Korean with her daughters out of fear that it would impede their development of English proficiency. In an interview with KoreAm Journal, Amerie stated that she is now only "conversational" in the Korean language and speaks it at home with her mother, Angela, and extended Korean family members.
Amerie also bears a tattoo featuring her given name in Korean script on her lower back, which can be seen in the music video for "1 Thing". (에이머리) Amerie is noted for signing her name in both English and Korean when giving autographs.
Music career
2001-2004: All I Have
Main article: All I Have (album)
Audio samples:
"Why Don't We Fall in Love" (2002)
Amerie's debut single.
"Talkin' to Me" (2003)
The second single off Amerie's debut album.
Problems playing the files? See media help.
Amerie received her big break in 2001 when she was featured on a track on rapper Nas's fifth studio album, Stillmatic, entitled "Rule". She was signed to Columbia Records by Donnie Ienner and throughout early 2002, Amerie's single "Why Don't We Fall in Love"—from her debut album, All I Have—received much urban radio airplay. Producer Rich Harrison wrote and produced All I Have in its entirety, except for the track "Outro", which Amerie wrote. Amerie's album was released amid the success of "Why Don't We Fall in Love", and the media immediately began to judge her success against those of other recent female R&B artists such as Tweet and Ashanti.
The album's next single, "Talkin' to Me", did not hit nearly as big at urban radio, yet its video still received strong support from MTV2. VH1 Soul has been known to play both of Amerie's videos with regularity since their debuts, and MTV Jams still occasionally spins "Why Don't We Fall in Love". The album was a success, going gold by the RIAA with 657,000 units sold in the United States.
In late 2002, she released a cover of Diana Ross' 1980 hit "I'm Coming Out" as a single for the soundtrack to the 2002 film Maid in Manhattan. Afterwards, in 2003, Amerie returned to the music scene briefly as a featured vocalist, first on LL Cool J's "Paradise" (a top twenty entry in the UK and a top forty single in the U.S.) and later on DJ Kayslay's "Too Much for Me" singing background. Although their videos received attention from digital music video channels, none of the singles became major hits.
Around this time, Amerie spent some time as the host?and developer of a brand-new show on BET called The Center. Amerie then landed a 2nd lead role as Mia Thompson in the 2004 romantic comedy First Daughter alongside Katie Holmes, Michael Keaton, Lela Rochon, and Marc Blucas. Directed By Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker.
2005-2006: Touch
Main article: Touch (Amerie album)
Audio samples:
"1 Thing" (2005)
Amerie's biggest hit to date.
"Touch" (2005)
The crunk-sounding second single from Touch.
Problems playing the files? See media help.
On April 26, 2005, Amerie released her second album, Touch. As with All I Have, the album was primarily produced by mentor Rich Harrison, who contributed seven (new) tracks to the record; additional productions came from Lil Jon, Bryce Wilson, Red Spyda, and Dre & Vidal. Unlike on her first album, Amerie co-wrote every track but one, "Come with Me", which Harrison wrote. Touch debuted and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and number three on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and it was certifed gold by the RIAA in August that year. It received two Grammy Award nominations in 2006: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for its lead single, "1 Thing", and Best Contemporary R&B Album.
Along with Touch, Amerie's biggest hit came with "1 Thing", which was also featured on the soundtrack to Hitch, a romantic comedy film starring Will Smith and Eva Mendes. Producer Rich Harrison sampled the distinctive main drum-and-guitar loops of the song from a 1970 version of Oh! Calcutta!'s theme song—retitled "Oh, Calcutta!"—by funk group The Meters. The song was later certified platinum for selling over 200,000 units in downloads and became Amerie's first top ten hit in the U.S., where it peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. "1 Thing" also earned several awards and nominations: two nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards—Best Female Video and Best Choreography—and four nominations for the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards—Best R&B/Soul Single, Solo, R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year, Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video, and Best R&B/Soul or Rap Dance Cut. At the 2005 VIBE Awards, Amerie took home Club Banger of the Year for her hit. "1 Thing" also spawned into a variety of remixes by rappers such as Eve, Fabolous, and Jay-Z.
In late 2005, Amerie released Touch's second single, "Touch", and was featured alongside Fat Joe on "I Don't Care", the lead single of Ricky Martin's album Life. Though the latter one entered the top twenty in several European countries and Australia, Touch's title track failed to reprise the success of "1 Thing"—it did not enter the Billboard Hot 100 (it peaked at number ninety-five on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart), and reached number nineteen on the UK Singles Chart. "Talkin' About", the third single, was released only for promo.
2007-2008: Because I Love It
Main article: Because I Love It
Audio samples:
"Take Control" (2006)
The first single from Because I Love It.
Problems playing the files? See media help.
Amerie's third album, Because I Love It, was her first album not to feature production from her long-time collaborator, friend, and producer Rich Harrison. Other producers—such as Bryan-Michael Cox, The Buchanans, Len Nicholson[her manager] and —were enlisted to work with Amerie. "Take Control", which was co-produced by Mike Caren, Amerie and Nicholson and co-written by Amerie and Cee-Lo Green, was the first single from the album and was released in the U.S. in late 2006. It failed to chart on the Hot 100, reaching the lower half of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Because I Love It was released in Europe in May 2007 and was scheduled to be released in the U.S. in 2007 (the release of the album made the Blender magazine list of "25 Reasons to Love '07", ranking nineteenth), but its release date was pushed back numerous times—it is available only as an import and through a limited release of the album in U.S. Wal-Mart stores. Allmusic described the album as "enthuastic", "unwavering", and being able to "lasso each song, whether it requires salt, sugar, heartache, delight, or any combination thereof."
In early 2007, it was reported that Korean pop sensation Se7en would collaborate with Amerie on the album. She has stated several times in interviews that she has been very eager to work with Korean pop/R&B singers, being a fan of K-pop herself. It was later reported that the re-worked version of "Take Control" would be featured on the Asian editions of the album Because I Love It. A limited amount of promotional albums that were released in Japan and Korea in late April include the remix featuring Se7en.
2008: New Home, New Sound
In late 2007, EW.com reported that Amerie had left her label Columbia Records, and in April 2008, Amerie's name was removed from the label's roster. She signed with the Island Def Jam Music Group, and is currently working on her next studio album with L.A. Reid who is heading up the entire project.
