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Christina Milian

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Christina Milian
Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev

Christina Milian (born Christine Flores on September 26, 1981) is an American actress and Grammy Award-nominated R&B singer, songwriter and dancer. She has released three studio albums and one compilation album. She has also had four solo top five singles (and also a top ten featuring credit single) in the UK as well as hits in the rest of Europe and North America. As an actress, Milian appeared in the 2003 film Love Don't Cost a Thing opposite Nick Cannon. She also starred as singer Linda Moon in Be Cool, the sequel to Get Shorty, and appeared in the 2006 horror film Pulse.

Early life

Milian was born in Jersey City, whose Afro-Cuban parents, Don and Carmen, had Christina herself, and two younger sisters, Dannielle 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 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. Christina Milian speaks both English and Spanish[citation needed].

Acting career

Milian's first significant role was as a reporter on the Disney Channel's Movie Surfers show in 1998 billed as Tina Flores. While in this role, she also appeared in minor roles in the movies A Bug's Life and American Pie and in guest appearances on the television series Charmed, Clueless, Get Real, The Amanda Show, and The Steve Harvey Show.

In 2002, Milian was appointed to host of the television show Wannabes on MTV. She met director Joseph Kahn on an episode of Wannabes who suggested she audition for a lead role in the film Torque opposite Ice Cube. Her audition was successful, which lead to a lead role in Love Don't Cost a Thing in 2003. In 2005, she had roles in the films Man of the House opposite Tommy Lee Jones and Be Cool with John Travolta and Uma Thurman. She also appeared in the horror film Pulse, released in August of 2006, starring alongside Veronica Mars actress Kristen Bell. In 2006, Milian was named #10 in Maxim's Hot 100.

In 2006, Milian appeared in the music video for Jessica Simpson's single "A Public Affair," alongside Christina Applegate, Eva Longoria, Maria Menounos, Ryan Seacrest and Andy Dick.

It is also said that she will shoot three movies in 2007. [1]

Recording career

2000—2002: Music beginnings

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Christina Milian (2001)

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

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It's About Time (2004). Listen to "Dip It Low" Audio file "DipItLowSample.ogg" not found.

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 positive 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 single was also certified Gold by the RIAA for digital sales. 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

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So Amazin' (2006)

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 executive 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.

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Best Of (2006)

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 were believed to be a factor, since the album sold less than 500,000 worldwide (over 100,000 in United States).

On November 22, Milian released her first compilation album, titled The Best of Christina Milian. [2] The album was released under the Universal International label. Milian stated on her MySpace blog, that she will start to record her new album at the beginning of 2007. Milian confirmed that Jonathan Rotem, Nate (Danja) Hills, The Runners, Lil Jon, Cool & Dre, Ryan Tedder are the producers and Rick Ross the first guest rapper. [3]

Alongside other big name artists of today, like Ciara and Chris Brown, she sang a cover of Sister Sledge's We Are Family for relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The CD and DVD, which contains interviews from all the singers, will be released on February 5, 2007.

Christina is rumored to sign a deal with Irv Gotti's The Inc..

Writing career

On December 8, 2006, E! News reported that Milian has started to write books [4]. She is currently writing two books, both targeted for teenage girls. She has stated that she wants to show her female fans the healthy way on how to be happy. There has been no release date set for either book as of yet.

Personal Life

Various media outlets in NY reported that Milian was dating Eric West. Both deny they were dating, and Milian posted on her myspace that she "[has] no idea who Eric West is" [5] 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.

After being together for nearly two and a half years, in the summer of 2005, Milian broke up with actor Nick Cannon. In an interview with Angie Martinez, she spoke about how she found out about Cannon cheating on her. According to Milian, 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 to the states, she decided to play it cool before hitting him with the news that she knew he was cheating[6].

Weeks after their break up, a rumored relationship with Eric West surfaced again. Eric said on American radio station Y100 that the two are just friends.

Milian denied dating producer Dre, who she worked with when recording her album So Amazin'. In June 2006 Dre confirmed [7] that he and Milian were dating[8].

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(just a friend), 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.

Milian has also recently sold personal items on eBay, fueling rumours that she is broke after being dropped by her label.[9]

Discography

Main article: Christina Milian discography

Albums

Singles

Filmography

Films

Television

Awards & nominations

Year Award
2004 Teen Choice Award nomination for Choice Breakout Movie Star - Female
2004 Teen Choice Award nomination for Choice Movie Chemistry (shared with Nick Cannon)
2004 Teen Choice Award nomination for Choice Movie Liplock (shared with Nick Cannon)
2005 Teen Choice Award nomination for Choice Crossover Artist
2005 BET Comedy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Theatrical Film (for Be Cool)
2005 Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album (for It's About Time)
2005 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Dip It Low" (shared with Fabolous)
2005 The Reign Award Elton John Award for Outstanding Achievement (shared with Mariah Carey and Eric West) [10]
2005 Groovevolt Music and Fashion Award nomination for Best Song Performance - Female for "Dip It Low"
2005 International Dance Music Award nomination for Best R&B/Urban Dance Track for "Dip It Low"

References

Footnotes

See also

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