About Ne-Yo
Ne-Yo [b. 1979; real name, Shaffer Chimere Smith, Jr.] hails from the small midwestern town of Camden, Arkansas, although his formative years were spent with his divorced mother in Las Vegas, Nevada. Smith’s first professional gig was as a member of the R&B group Envy, where he went by the stage name GoGo. The group broke up in 2000, after which Smith signed with Columbia Records and began putting together a solo album. The label mysteriously dropped him before the album got released, but singer Marques Houston recorded one of the songs Smith had written for himself on that album, which helped spread the name Ne-Yo as a viable songwriter.
Throughout the early 2000s, Smith continued to write songs for others, including singles recorded by Teedra Moses, Mary K. Blige, and Christina Milian. His breakout success came in 2004, when his tune “Let Me Love You” hit Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 for singer Mario. That success led to him signing a deal with Def Jam Recordings. In 2006, Ne-Yo finally saw a solo album hit the streets. Titled In My Own Words, it included the hit single “So Sick,” itself a chart-topper on the aforementioned Billboard Hot 100. The album went on to sell more than a million units, thus certifying its platinum status.
As both a performer and a songwriter, Ne-Yo has enjoyed an almost unbroken string of successes. He has continued to put out hit album after hit album, as illustrated by multiple Grammy nominations in recent years as well as the 2009 release of a greatest hits compilation, Ne-Yo: The Collection. He has continued to craft songs for the hottest acts in the business, including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke, and Cheryl Cole, as well as more mainstream pop recording stars like Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. He has also graced the silver screen in several film roles, the most recent of which is in Red Tails [2012], the action drama that tells the story of WWII’s all-black Tuskegee Airmen squadron.
