She has never been very famous in Spain, but in the English-speaking world and, above all, in the United States, Brandy is an important figure in popular culture and one of the fundamental pillars of contemporary R&B, becoming an influence for artists of the caliber of Beyoncé or Frank Ocean, who wrote the song ‘Scared of Beautiful’ for her and other unreleased songs, many years before retiring sine die.
Brandy went from being a teenage star to becoming one of the most prestigious voices in African-American popular music, becoming nicknamed the “Vocal Bible” for the sophistication of her harmonies. Norwood has just published his memoir, ‘Phases’ – where he talks, among other things, about the serious traffic accident he suffered in 2006 that caused the death of a person – and about receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, so we take the opportunity to review the five main milestones of his musical career.
Moesha
The sitcom that made Brandy Norwood known in the mid-90s narrated the life of a middle-class African-American family and contributed to representing a more everyday and less stereotyped image of an African-American family, without avoiding addressing important social issues such as racism. It was originally broadcast between 1996 and 2001, and also arrived in Spain, a few years later, through Disney Channel. Although outside the United States it did not achieve the popularity of similar series such as ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’, ‘Moesha’ is also part of the wave of African-American sitcoms of the 90s that centered the lives of black characters, in this case a teenage girl, proving revolutionary.
‘Cinderella’ and Whitney Houston
At the age of 18, Brandy starred in the second television adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical ‘Cinderella’, becoming the first black actress to play this classic role on television. The cast, which included Jason Alexander and Whoopi Goldberg, was supposedly diverse and, although the film did not receive great reviews, it was a huge audience success, being seen in its first broadcast by 60 million people. Whitney Houston, producer of the film, wanted to star in it in 1993, but by the time the idea began to be developed, she was too old for the role, so she offered it to Brandy – who had already participated in the soundtrack of ‘Waiting to Exhale’ – and Houston went on to play the Fairy Godmother. Houston was Brandy’s great mentor and her death greatly affected the singer, as it occurred on her birthday.
‘The Boy is Mine’
The song for which Brandy will always be remembered worldwide is this duet with Monica, which served as the first single from both singers’ respective albums. Confronted in the media, like Britney and Christina a few years later, Brandy and Monica laughed about it by recording a kind of response to ‘The Girl Is Mine’ by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, taking their duet to number 1 in the United States and to the top positions in many European countries. It was a smashing international hit, the second biggest hit of 1998, only behind Céline Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’, and the biggest hit of the year in the United States. Their influence is evident in their current streams and in the response that Ariana Grande recorded in 2024: her ‘The Boy Is Mine’ was not a cover, but musically it followed her style and was also a great song. Its logical conclusion was a remix that featured Brandy and Monica themselves, who also appeared in its video clip.
‘Full Moon’ and influence on alternative R&B
“Wash your mouth when you talk about Brandy,” Solange Knowles told a (white) music critic who dared to disparage Norwood’s music, ignorantly reducing it to uninteresting “deep cuts.” In reality, works like ‘Full Moon’ (2001) were innovative for their use of the voice as a texture and instrument, with Brandy being the main vocal producer of her albums, and just as progressive was her next album, ‘Afrodisiac’ (2004), which experimented with “illbient”, influencing a whole generation of artists – alternative or not – such as Frank Ocean, who later wrote for her, or Rihanna, who basically tried to copy – she said it, not us. ‘Aphrodisiac’ in ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’. Their subsequent albums have not taken equally daring paths, although ‘Two Eleven’ (2012) contained several R&B delicatessens such as ‘Music’ or ‘Slower’; and the last one is now 6 years old, but that does not erase the innovations of his previous works, which deserve to be recognized.
‘Phases’ and Star of Fame
Coinciding with her reception on March 30 of the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which represents her lasting impact on the music industry and we could consider another milestone, at 47 years old, Brandy has published her memoir, ‘Phases’, which promises to be a fascinating read. He says that he fainted in front of Michael Jackson after meeting him, that he had a real fight with Monica, not just in their successful duet, and reveals an episode of tension with Kanye West, with whom he recorded the single ‘Talk About Our Love’, after the rapper showed an unprofessional attitude during the production of his fourth album.
