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Keyshia Cole
Background information
Birth name	Keyshia Cole
Born	October 15, 1981 (1981-10-15) (age 27)
Origin	Oakland, California, U.S.
Genre(s)	R&B, soul, hip hop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, reality television celebrity
Years active	2004-present
Label(s)	Interscope-Geffen-A&M, Imani Entertainment, Confidential Records, GOOD Music
Website	KeyshiaCole.com

Keyshia Cole (born October 15, 1981)¹ is an American R&B singer-songwriter, and record producer known for her soulful voice. Cole cites singers Mary J. Blige and Brandy as her biggest influences.

She released her platinum selling debut album The Way It Is in June 2005, and her sophomore platinum album Just Like You in September 2007. Keyshia's third studio album, A Different Me, will be released on December 16, 2008. The lead single "Playa Cardz Right" features rapper Tupac and was officially released on October 8, 2008.

Cole currently wrapped filming the third season of her BET reality series, Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is, which premiered on November 11, 2008.

Biography

Keyshia Cole was born in Oakland, California to an African-American mother, Francine (Frankie) and an Italian-American father, Sal. Cole entered the ACS^{citation needed} system because of her biological mother's drug addiction made her incapable of caring for Keyshia. She was adopted by her mother's friends Yvonne and Leon Cole Jr. at two years old. She is the younger sister of Oakland based rapper Nutt-So^{citation needed}.

Cole's first experiences with the music industry began at the age of twelve, when she recorded with MC Hammer and associated with 2Pac.

Career

In 2004, she attracted the attention of A&M Records executive Ron Fair.² The following year, her Platinum-debut album The Way It Is was released, featuring the hit singles "I Changed My Mind", and "I Should Have Cheated", and "Love". The album debuted at #6 on the U.S. charts and sold 89,000 copies in the first week of release.

Her sophomore album, Just Like You, was released in 2007. It features the singles "Last Night" featuring Diddy, "Let It Go" featuring Missy Elliott and Lil' Kim, "I Remember", "Shoulda Let You Go", and "Heaven Sent". It debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 300,000 copies in its first week.

At the 50th Grammy Awards, Cole was nominated for two Grammys, Best Contemporary R&B Album and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

Record label

Keyshia Cole's first record label was with Interscope Records thanks to the executive Ron Fair. Interscope Records and A&M Records released her debut album The Way It Is in 2005. She is currently still with that record group including Geffen which released her sophomore album Just Like You in 2007. Her cousin Amina was introduced on her second single from her second album "Shoulda Let You Go" and is currently signed with her.

2004-2007

Keyshia Cole has worked on numerous projects over the years. She has been on soundtracks for productions such as Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Step Up 2, Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married, and others. She also released her debut platinum album on A&M Records titled The Way It Is, featuring artists such as Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Chink Santana, Metro City and Eve. She has also released numerous singles, including "I Changed My Mind" featuring Kanye West, "(I Just Want It) To Be Over", "I Should Have Cheated", and "Love".

Keyshia released the first single from her sophomore album titled "Let It Go" released on July 19, 2007, her second single "Shoulda Let You Go" in October, her third single "I Remember" on December 5, 2007, and her fourth single "Heaven Sent" on March 7, 2008. "Heaven Sent" was #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for nine weeks. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song peaked at #28.

Keyshia graced the October 2007 covers of Sister 2 Sister, Essence, VIBE and Jet magazines³ and December 2007 Dub magazine.

She released her sophomore album Just Like You in September 2007 with guest artists Missy Elliott, Lil' Kim, Too Short, Amina, Diddy, T.I., and Young Dro.

Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is

In conjunction with her album release, BET began airing the second season of Cole's reality show Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is on October 30, 2007. The show premiered to record breaking ratings for BET. It is the top returning series premiere in BET history, as well as the number one original series premiere of the year. A reported 2.9 million viewers and 2.0 million households watched the season 2 finale. It is now the #1 series telecast in BET history.⁴ She reported on BET's 106 & Park that a Season 3 has been filmed since summer 2008 and aired on November 11, 2008. This season is full of Keyshia's action packed summer and early fall updates on her family Nefeteria Pugh and Frankie Lons.

2008-present

Keyshia has recently been in the studio recording guest appearances on songs such as "Boyfriend/Girlfriend" with hip/hop band C-Side on the album Class In Session", "I Got A Thang For You" with rapper Trina on the album Still Da Baddest. She has recently shot her new music video for "Playa Cardz Right" and will premiere it back-to-back with the 3rd season of Her hit reality show.

When appearing on 106 & Park's 2000th Show Celebration, Keyshia announced that she is currently in the studio working on her new album, A Different Me, which is already being highly compared to Mary J Blige's 1999 Album Mary. Her new album will be released on December 16th, 2008.

Keyshia is also featured on the new song "Just Stand Up", for cancer research along with various pop, hip-hop, and R&B artists this year.

Discography

Main article: Keyshia Cole discography

• The Way It Is (2005)
• Just Like You (2007)
• A Different Me (2008)

Awards and nominations

Filmography

Television

Guest appearances

Films

References

1. ^ Birchmeier, Jason. "Keyshia Cole Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved on 2008-11-02.
2. ^ Keyshia Cole Profile – Biography
3. ^ "Vibe Magazine".
4. ^ "Record Breaking Ratings".

External links

• Official Site
• Keyshia Cole at MySpace