Monica Denise Arnold (formerly Brown; born October 24, 1980)[2] is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, she began performing as a child and became part of a traveling gospel choir at the age of ten. Monica rose to prominence after she signed with Rowdy Records in 1993 and released her debut album Miss Thang two years later. She followed it with a series of successful albums, including the global bestseller The Boy Is Mine (1998) as well as the number-one albums After the Storm (2003), The Makings of Me (2006) and Still Standing (2010). Throughout her career, several of Monica's singles became number-one hits on the pop and R&B charts, including "Before You Walk Out of My Life", "Don't Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)", "Like This and Like That", "The Boy Is Mine", "The First Night", "Angel of Mine", "So Gone", and "Everything to Me".
After a label change to Clive Davis' Arista Records, Monica's mainstream success was boosted, when "For You I Will", from the Space Jam soundtrack (1996) became her next top ten pop hit.[16] The song was written by Diane Warren. The following year she was asked to team up with singer Brandy and producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins to record "The Boy Is Mine", the first single from both of their second albums. Released in May 1998, surrounding highly publicized rumors about a real-life catfight between both singers,[17] the duet became both the biggest hit of the summer and the biggest hit of 1998 in general in America,[18] spending thirteen weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It earned the pair a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" and garnered multi-platinum sales (to date, it remains as one of the top twenty most successful American singles in history based on Billboard chart success).[18] Jermaine Dupri, David Foster and Austin consulted on the album The Boy Is Mine, which was released later that year and eventually became Monica's biggest-selling album, becoming certified triple platinum by the RIAA for more than three million store-shipped copies.[14] It yielded another two U.S. number-one hits with "The First Night" and "Angel of Mine", a cover of Eternal's 1997 single, as well as a remake of Richard Marx' "Right Here Waiting". Rolling Stone proclaimed it "closer to soul's source... harking back past hip-hop songbirds like Mary J. Blige and adult-contemporary sirens like Toni Braxton",[19] while AllMusic called the album an "irresistible sounding [and] immaculately crafted musical backdrop [...] as good as mainstream urban R&B gets in 1998."[20] Monica has also made guest appearances on several television shows such as Living Single (1996), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1997, 1999). Monica has said many times that Whitney Houston is her biggest inspiration and influence since childhood. Another big influence is Mary J. Blige. Other artists she looks up to are Betty Wright, Gladys Knight and Anita Baker.