- published: 02 Oct 2013
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Monica Denise Brown (née Arnold; born October 24, 1980) professionally known as Monica, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, Monica began performing as a child and became part of a traveling gospel choir, by the time she was ten. Guided by producers Dallas Austin and Tim & Bob, she signed with Arista Records at age thirteen and released her debut album Miss Thang in 1995. Its first two singles "Don't Take It Personal" and "Before You Walk out of My Life" made her the youngest recording act to ever have two consecutive chart-topping hits on the US Billboard Top R&B Singles chart.
In 1998, Arnold's second album The Boy Is Mine earned her major international chart success. Pushed by its number-one hit title track, a duet with singer Brandy, it spawned two further chart-toppers, "The First Night" and "Angel of Mine", and established her position as one of the most successful of the urban R&B female vocalists to emerge in the mid to late-1990s. During the production of her third album All Eyez on Me (2002), Arnold experienced personal struggles and her career went under hiatus. In 2003, her fourth album After the Storm was released on J Records, and after an unsuccessful period, she scored her fifth number one single, "So Gone". Her latest album Still Standing, whose recording was tracked by a BET reality series of the same name, was released in 2010 and produced the hit singles "Everything to Me" and "Love All Over Me", the first of which became Arnold's sixth number one hit.