Ciara

Ciara Princess Harris (born October 25, 1985), known mononymously as Ciara, is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, actress and fashion model. Born in Austin, Texas, she travelled around the world during her childhood, only to land in Atlanta, Georgia where she met music producer, Jazze Pha. With his help, she was signed to LaFace Records, and has gone on to become a successful artist, having sold more than seven million albums worldwide and had numerous top ten hits.

In 2004 Ciara released her debut album Goodies which spawned the number one hits "Goodies" and "1, 2 Step", selling over five million copies worldwide and certified triple platinum in the United States. The album earned her four nominations at the 2004 Grammy Awards. In 2006, she released her second album, Ciara: The Evolution which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and included the hits "Get Up" and "Promise". Her third album Fantasy Ride released in May 2009, included the worldwide top ten hit single "Love Sex Magic" with Justin Timberlake which earned her a nomination at the 52nd Grammy Awards for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals". Since making her musical debut in 2004, Ciara has attained five Billboard Hot 100 top ten singles including a number one. Prior to the release of her third album, Ciara has sold over seven million albums worldwide, and as of June 2010, she has sold more than 4.3 million albums and 6.9 million digital tracks in the United States alone.

In February 2010, rapper Ludacris released a remix to his single "How Low" which had Ciara as a featured artist alongside Miami rapper Pitbull. In March 2010 Ciara made a cameo appearance in the music video of Usher's single, "Lil' Freak". Her fourth studio album Basic Instinct was released in December 2010. Ciara told Pete Lewis of Blues & Soul magazine, that the album "is really about her trusting her instinct and going back to the R&B/urban basics in her music – like where she first started, in the days of "Goodies" and "1, 2 Step". It was executively produced by the singer alongside her A&R agent Mark Pitts and writing/production duo Tricky Stewart and The-Dream who, also produced records for her previous album, Fantasy Ride. Basic Instinct debuted at number forty-four on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 37,000 copies.Consequently, it marks the first time in Ciara's career that one of her album's has missed the top three, as well as continuing a downward trend in success. On the U.S. R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, the album opened at number eleven again becoming Ciara's lowest charting album of her career thus far.

"Ride", which features Ludacris, was released as the album's lead single on April 26, 2010. It peaked at number forty-two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, number three on the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart,

and number seventy-five on the UK Singles Chart. It became Ciara's twelfth top-ten R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and R&B/Hip-Hop Songs hit.The song won the award for "Best Dance Performance" at the 2010 Soul Train Music Awards."Speechless" and "Gimmie Dat" were released as the second and third singles from the album in the fall of 2010,.Both only managed to peak within the lower half of US R&B charfts. while the latter achieved minor chart success in the UK.In November 2010 Ciara travelled to Australia to be part of the Summerbeatz tour alongside Flo Rida, Jay Sean, Akon, Travie McCoy and Ja Rule.In February 2011, following rumors that Ciara had been dropped by Jive Records, she released an official statement to her Facebook page complaining of inadequate promotion and funding from the label. She stated that she received a lack of support from the label, and even paid for the promotion of some singles, such as "Gimmie Dat", herself. The frustration she felt while working with her third and fourth albums led her to request that she be released from her contract. In May 2011, Ciara's page was removed from the Jive Records website,[ and her official website Ciaraworld.com was taken down, leading to speculation that she had gotten out of her contract with the label.