Short Biography

Career beginnings
Gray was born in Canton, Ohio, and decided to pursue a career in music after being expelled from Western Reserve Academy in Hudson. However, Gray`s initial success came as a surprise. While attending the University of Southern California (graduated 1990[2]) she agreed to write songs for a friend of hers and a demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer. When the vocalist failed to turn up to record the songs, Gray found herself recording them herself. She then met Writer/Producer Joe Solo at her job as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a large collection of songs and recorded them in Solo`s studio. The demo tape created a lot of attention and consequently landed Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles, California. Despite Gray`s dislike of her own voice, her vocals garnered lots of attention around the jazz scene, and Atlantic Records signed her to their label. Months later, Gray gave her demo album to Atlantic, but the record label was dissatisfied with her efforts. Going through the break-up of her marriage and expecting her third child, Gray retreated back to Canton. During this time, Gray`s demo tape was still doing the rounds, and in 1998 she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She was also in one of the songs from The Black Eyed Peas` debut album, Love Won`t Wait.

On How Life Is (1999)
During the whole of 1998, Gray continued to work on her debut album. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash. Despite the first single "Do Something" stalling on the charts, it was by word of mouth and the release of the second single "I Try" that the album really became a success for Gray. "I Try" was one of the biggest singles of 1999, and subsequent singles "Still" and "Why Didn`t You Call Me" ensured the album becoming triple platinum in the U.S., quadruple platinum in the UK, and triple platinum in Canada.

In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" for "I Try", which was also nominated for "Song of the Year" and "Record of the Year". She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, The Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song "The World Is Yours", from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time in the thriller Training Day. In August 2001, Gray was booed off stage at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the words to the American national anthem.[3]


[edit] Subsequent albums (2001–2005)
In the midst of the controversy, Gray`s The Id became a commercial stillborn, largely stalling on the U.S. charts, in spite of appearances by John Frusciante and Erykah Badu on the album`s hit single "Sweet Baby", (which was co-written with longtime collaborator Joe Solo), though the album managed to peak at number eleven on the Billboard 200. However, it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the BPI. The underperformance in the United States, compared to her debut album, may have been attributed to the fact that The Id was released just a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2002, she appeared in Spider-Man as herself and worked with Santana on the track "Amoré (Sexo)", from his album Shaman. She also recorded a duet with Zucchero called "Like The Sun (From Out Of Nowhere)" which featured Jeff Beck on guitar released in 2004 on Zu & Co., a duets collection. Her song "Time of My Life" was included in th

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