christina milian

Early life

Milian was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Carmen who is Afro-Cuban and Don who is White Cuban, and has two younger sisters, Danielle and Elizabeth. Her family moved to Waldorf, Maryland soon after her birth and she set her heart on an entertainment career at the age of four. Milian did commercials (Wendy's, Honeycombs) and played the lead role in the musical Annie before moving to Los Angeles, California at 13 to pursue an acting career; Her father didn't move with the rest her family and divorced her mother soon after. Her mother is now her manager. Milian speaks conversantional English and Spanish. [1][2]

Recording career

2000—2002: Music beginnings

In 2000, Milian made her first official musical appearance on Ja Rule's sophomore studio album Rule 3:36, performing guest vocals on his song "Between Me and You". Released as the album's lead single in 2001, the track managed to peak at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and in the top 30 of the UK singles chart, building Milian's reputation as a singer. In the meantime Milian co-wrote and provided extensive backing vocals for the track "Play for Jennifer Lopez's 2001 album J. Lo which became another success. Milian would later pass down the song to Lopez because of already having a club song with "AM to PM" as promotion. She also went on to co-write "Same Ol' Same Ol", the first single from girl group PYT's debut album Down With Me.

In 2001, Milian eventually released her first solo single, "AM To PM", off her self-titled debut album. The song became a worldwide hit reaching the top 5 in the UK and Denmark, top 10 in the Netherlands, and top 40 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and in Australia. The success of "AM To PM" sparked the international release of the Christina Milian album, although not in the United States. The second single "When You Look At Me" was another international hit reaching the top 5 in the UK, Netherlands, and Ireland and making the top 40 in Denmark, Germany, Australia, and France. Although a music video for the album's third single "Get Away" (another collaboration with Ja Rule) was filmed in Paris, the single wasn't released officially.

Afterwards Milian also was featured on the track "It's All Gravy", a duet with British singer Romeo of the garage group So Solid Crew. While the song was another UK top ten hit single in 2002, Milian provided the theme song for the Disney series Kim Possible, "Call Me Beep Me" later that year.

2003—2005: New image and popularity

In 2003, Milian started recording songs with Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Bloodshy & Avant and Cory Rooney for her first U.S. release, It's About Time (whose title is a direct reference to how long it had taken for one of her albums to be released domestically). The album was released to postive reviews on July 13, 2004, but failed to receive immense commercial success when it debuted at #21 in the UK and #14 on the Billboard 200 album chart, selling over 36,000 copies in the first week only. While It's about Time ended up with lackluster sales of 385,000 copies in the United States, it gained prominence when it received a Grammy nomination for "Best Contemporary R&B Album" in 2005.

The album's first single, "Dip It Low" (written by singer Teedra Moses and Black Eyed Peas producer Poli Paul) however, became Milian's biggest hit to date, when it peaked at #1 on a world composite dance chart (compiled on data from the U.S., UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Australia), simultaneously reaching #2 in the UK, #5 in the U.S., #7 in New Zealand and the top 20 in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands. The album's second and final single, "Whatever U Want" (featuring Joe Budden) failed to reprise the success of the lead single, but again reached the top 10 in the UK as well as charting on the Billboard Hot 100.

2006—present: Career development

Christina Milian's third studio album So Amazin' was released on May 16, 2006. While Milian worked with Cool & Dre on the majority of the production of the album, the project was finished with additional help from Rich Harrison and executice producers Jay-Z and LA Reid. The record's first single "Say I" featured rapper Young Jeezy and was released in March 2006 as a single and video. The song made it to number 1 on iTunes UK Music Store and was number 1 on AOL music, but altogether saw moderate success only with peak positions on #21 in the United States, #4 in the UK and #45 in Australia.

While So Amazin' failed to reach the top 10 when it debuted at #11 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the album saw minor international success only, peaking at #65 in the UK inter alia. With "Gonna Tell Everybody" a second single from the album was chosen, but Island Def Jam neither agreed to film a music video nor booked promotional appearances for Milian to promote the song. In June 2006, instead, Milian's representative confirmed that she had left the Island Def Jam record label due to "creative differences" - though disappointing album sales have been widely believed to be a factor, since the album sold less then 500,000 worldwide (over 100,000 in United States).

As a result, Milian is currently said to be negotiating a new record deal, rumored to be with Kanye West's GOOD Music or Motown Universal. The new album is slated for a 2007 release, and rumored to be titled No Turning Back.

Personal life

In the summer of 2005, Milian broke up with actor Nick Cannon after being together for nearly two and a half years. In an interview with Angie Martinez, she spoke about how she found out about Cannon cheating on her. Apparently while she was away filming Pulse in Romania, she attempted to log in to his T-Mobile account by entering in random passwords. After lucking out with one of the passwords, she was able to read all of the messages he sent out and received to and from other women. When she returned back to the states, she decided to play it cool before hitting him with the news that she knew he was cheating.

Weeks after their break up, a rumored relationship with Eric West created more headlines than her breakup with Cannon. Milian was spotted with the actor and singer during New York's Olympus Fashion Week leading to many claims that the two are dating. A picture taken in August 2005 of Milian and West (left picture) went on to fuel rumours of the two being involved with each other. Eric said on American radio station Y100 that the two are just friends. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7][8].

Recently AOL News reported West and Milian were spotted together once again at a New York Hotel, saying Singer-actress Christina Milian spotted looking nervous as she left the Hotel Gansevoort in New York's Soho district as she ran into actor Eric West. The two made headlines when Milian posted a MySpace blog saying she "[have] no idea who Eric West is" despite having co-hosted an event for Elton John's AIDS foundation in August 2005, and being photographed with West at the last New York Fashion Week. My mole said she kept apologizing to West during the chance encounter... ^[1]

She's currently dating Dre from the hip-hop producing team Cool & Dre. Dre comfirmed that the two are indeed an item on a urban news site. He said: "Yeah, that's definitely wifey right there," he said. "A real man isn't ashamed to claim what's his. I could never disrespect by not claiming my girl. No matter how 'G' you wanna keep it on the industry tip, you don't want to do that to somebody especially if it's genuine. We've been together for a little bit now."

Milian has also recently sold personal items on eBay, fuelling rumours that she is broke after being dropped. Milian says the procedes will go to charity.[9]

Philanthropy

On August 6, 2005 Christina co-hosted The Reign at the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre in New York City with actor/singer Eric West, the event was designed by a group of inner-city children in 2003 to raise funding and awareness for HIV/AIDS prevention education for men, women and children living with HIV and AIDS, as well as working with the Fresh Air Fund to continue to help other inner-city children and family's. Both Milian and West were awarded Outstanding Achievement Awards for their humanitarian efforts.

Discography

Albums

• Christina Milian (2001) #23 UK
• It's About Time (2004) #14 U.S., #21 UK
• So Amazin' (2006) #11 U.S., #67 UK

Singles

Album appearances

• 2000: "Between Me & You" from Ja Rule- Rule 3:36
• 2001: "Call Me, Beep Me (The Kim Possible Theme Song)" (with Christy Carlson Romano; from Kim Possible Soundtrack)
• 2001: "Play" (background vocals with Jennifer Lopez; from J. Lo)
• 2002: "I Hear Santa On The Radio" (from Hilary Duff's debut Christmas and solo album, "Santa Claus Lane")

Soundtrack appearances

• Rush Hour ("You Make Me Laugh"; 2001)
• Be Cool ("Ain't No Reason", "Believer"; 2005)
• In the Mix ("Be What It's Gonna Be"; 2005)

Mixtape appearances

• "Peep Show"
• "7 Days (Remix)" (featuring Vic Damone)
• "L.O.V.E. (Japanese Remix)" (featuring Joe Budden)
• "Into The Sunset"
• "Suga' Cane"
• "Lose Your Love" (featuring Twista)
• "Much More" (with Nick Cannon)
• "Who's Gonna Ride?" (featuring Lil' Wayne & Three 6 Mafia)
• "Say I" (featuring Juelz Santana & Young Jeezy)
• "Someday One Day" (Remix) (Featuring Lil Fizz & J-Boog & Raz-B)
• "Look Around" (Feauring Bratz & M-Flo)

Songwriting Credit

• "Same Ol' Same Ol" (PYT)
• "Play" (Jennifer Lopez)
• "Walk Away" (Paula DeAnda )
• "Call Me, Beep Me (The Kim Possible Theme Song)" (Kim Possible Soundtrack )

Filmography

• A Bug's Life (1998) (voice)
• Durango Kids (1999) (Ellie)
• American Pie (1999) (Band Geek)
• The Wood (1999) (Girl at dance)
• Love Don't Cost a Thing (2003) (Paris Morgan)
• Torque (2004) (Nina)
• Man of the House (2005) (Anne)
• Be Cool (2005) (Linda Moon)
• Pulse (2006) (Isabel)
• Crood Awakening (2008)

Awards & nominations

Trivia

• Appeared in Jessica Simpson's music video of "A Public Affair" alongside Christina Applegate, Eva Longoria, Maria Menounos, Ryan Seacrest and Andy Dick.

See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

External links

• Christina Milian at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website
• Official Myspace page
• MilianGloss