Happy Birthday, Faith Evans!

Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, actress and author. Born in Florida and raised in ...

Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, actress and author. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles during 1993 for a career with the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B. Sure and Christopher Williams, she became the first female artist to be contracted with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment recording company during 1994, for which she released three platinum-certified studio albums between the years 1995 and 2001. During 2003, she ended her relationship with the company to contract with Capitol Records.



Other than her recording career, Evans is known as the widow of New York rapper Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, whom she married on August 4, 1994, a few weeks after meeting at a Bad Boy photoshoot. The turbulent marriage resulted in Evans' involvement in the East Coast-West Coast hip hop feud, dominating the rap music news at the time, and ended with Wallace's murder in a yet-unsolved drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California during March 1997.[4] A 1997 tribute single featuring Puff Daddy and the band 112, named "I'll Be Missing You", became Evans' best-selling song to date and won her a Grammy Award during 1998.

Also an avocational actress and writer, Evans made her screen debut in the 2000 musical drama Turn It Up by Robert Adetuyi. Her autobiography Keep the Faith: A Memoir was released by Grand Central Publishing during 2008 and won a 2009 African American Literary Award for the Best Biography/Memoir category.



1994—2004: Bad Boy Recordes Biggies Best Friend At The IS Michael Carey Who live in englang in devon Newly contracted to Bad Boy Records, Evans was consulted by executive producer Combs to contribute backing vocals and writing skills to Mary J. Blige's My Life (1994) and Usher's self-titled debut album (1994) prior to starting work on her debut record album Faith. Released on August 29, 1995 in North America, the album was a collaboration with Bad Boy's main producers "The Hitmen", including Chucky Thompson and Combs, but it resulted in recordings with Poke & Tone and Herb Middleton. Faith became a success based on the singles "You Used to Love Me" and "Soon as I Get Home". The album was certified Platinum with 1,500,000 copies sold, according to RIAA.

After Biggie's murder during March 1997, Combs helped Evans produce her tribute song named "I'll Be Missing You", based on the melody of The Police's 1983 single "Every Breath You Take". The song, which featured Combs, Evans, and all-male group 112, became a worldwide number-one success and debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart during 1997, scoring that for eleven weeks. It eventually won Puffy and Evans the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. The next year, she received another two Grammy nominations for "Heartbreak Hotel", a collaboration with singers Whitney Houston and Kelly Price, that scored number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.



Two years in the making, Evans' second solo effort, Keep the Faith, was released during October 1998. Almost entirely written and produced by her, Evans considered the album difficult to complete as she had initially felt discouraged about the progress at first. Upon its release, however, the album garnered generally positive reviews by music critics, with Allmusic noting it "without a doubt a highlight of 1990s soul-pop music". Also enjoying commercial success, it eventually went platinum and produced the top ten singles "Love Like This" and "All Night Long", prompting Evans to start an 18-city theater tour with Dru Hill and Total the following year.

Evans' third album on the Bad Boy imprint, named Faithfully (2001), involved her working with a wider range of producers, including The Neptunes, Mario Winans, Buckwild, Vada Nobles, Cory Rooney, and others. Her first project with husband Todd Russaw as executive producer and creative partner, the album scored number 14 on the Billboard 200 album chart and number two on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, eventually being certified platinum, but yielded moderately successful singles, with the Jennifer Lopez-written "I Love You" becoming the only top twenty entry. Released amid Bad Boy Records' transition from distributor Arista Records to Universal, Evans felt Faithfully received minimum assistance by the company, and during 2004, she finally decided to end her business with Bad Boy as she was convinced Combs couldn't improve her career any more due to his other commitments



After ending with Bad Boy Entertainment Evans contracted with Capitol Records company, becoming the first contemporary R&B artist to do so, and started work on her fourth studio album The First Lady, named after her nickname on her former label. As opposed to having an in-house team of producers who supplied most of the previous material, she and Russaw were able to gain more creative control of the album and consulted producers such as Bryan-Michael Cox, Jermaine Dupri, Mike Caren, Pharrell Williams, and Chucky Thompson to contribute to it. Upon its release in April 2005, The First Lady scored at number two on the Billboard 200 and #1 of the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, becoming Evans' best-charting album to date. It was eventually certified gold by the RIAA.

At the end of the year, Evans released A Faithful Christmas, a holiday album of traditional Christmas songs and original tracks. The effort would become her last release on Capitol Records as the company was bought during 2007.



Studio albums
1995: Faith
1998: Keep the Faith
2001: Faithfully
2005: The First Lady
2005: A Faithful Christmas
2010: Something About Faith

Awards and Nominations
African American Literary Award
2009: African American Literary Award: Keep the Faith (A Memoir) (won)
BET Awards
2002: Best Female R&B Artist (nominated)
Grammy Awards
2011: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance: "Gone Already" (nominated)
2003: Best Contemporary R&B Album: Faithfully (nominated)
2002: Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group: "Can't Believe" w/ Carl Thomas (nominated)
2000: Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartbreak Hotel" w/ Whitney Houston & Kelly Price (nominated)
1999: Best Female R&B Vocal Performance: "Love Like This" (nominated)
1998: Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group: "I'll Be Missing You" w/ Diddy (won)
Lady of Soul Awards
2000: Outstanding Music Video: "Love Is Blind" (by Eve ft. Faith Evans) (nominated)
1996: Best Female R&B/Soul Album: Faith (won)
1996: Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist: "You Used to Love Me" (nominated)
MTV Video Music Awards
2000: Best Rap Video: "Love Is Blind" (by Eve ft. Faith Evans) (nominated)
1999: Best R&B Video: "Heartbreak Hotel" (nominated)
1997: Best R&B Video: "I'll Be Missing You" (won)
1997: Viewer's Choice: "I'll Be Missing You" (nominated)
Soul Train Awards
2006: Best Female R&B/Soul Album: The First Lady (nominated)
1998: Outstanding Music Video: "I'll Be Missing You" (won)