Jazmine Sullivan Concerts Tickets

ABOUT JAZMINE SULLIVAN

Singer-songwriter Jazmine Sullivan was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in a musical household – her mother is a former backup singer for Philadelphia International Records. She attended the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts majoring in vocal music and graduating in 2005.

CAREER

2003-2009: Career beginnings and Fearless

At just 15 years old, Sullivan was signed to Jazz Records. However, despite recording an album on the label, no music was ever released and she was dropped from her contract. That year, she met Missy Elliot when recording vocals for  Kindred the Family Soul's song, "I Am", along with backing vocals on the song "Party's Over", and the title track to their debut album Surrender to Love.

In 2006, she began writing with the production duo Cool & Dre. Together, they wrote the song "Say I," which was given to Dre's then-girlfriend Christina Milian for her third album, So Amazin'. The track became the album’s lead single, peaking at number 13 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.

"Need U Bad," Sullivan's debut single and the lead single from her debut album Fearless, was released in May 2008. The track features  Missy Elliott and Sandy "Pepa" Denton of Salt-n-Pepa. It debuted at number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent a total of 34 weeks atop the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart. Elliot was also heavily involved in the production of Fearless, which was released on September 23, 2008.

Fearless debuted at number one on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums and at number six on the Billboard 200. The album earned Sullivan seven Grammy Award nominations and has been certified gold by the RIAA. "Bust Your Windows", her second single from the album, was also released in September 2008 and which reached number 4 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song appeared on the debut episode of the Fox hit television show Glee and was also nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Song. "Lions, Tigers & Bears" was released as the album's third single in December 2008, landing her third consecutive top ten on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at number 10. It was followed in April 2009 by "Dream Big," the final single from the album, which was certified gold by the RIAA.

In April 2009, Sullivan was featured on a song entitled "Smoking Gun" with Jadakiss on his third studio album The Last Kiss.  She performed as the support act for Maxwell on his 2008 US tour and was the opening act for Ne-Yo's 2009 Year of the Gentleman Tour.

June 2009 brought on Ace Hood's second studio album, Ruthless, on the song "Champion," as well as co-headliner dates with Ryan Leslie, and a performance at Essence Festival.

In December 2009, Sullivan featured on the song "Different Languages" from Snoop Dogg’s 10th studio album, Malice n Wonderland.

2009-2011: Love Me Back

Sullivan’s second studio album, Love Me Back, was written and recorded in 2009 alongside producers Missy Elliott, Lamb, Ne-Yo, Anthony Bell, Los da Mystro, Ryan Leslie, and Salaam Remi, among others.

The album's lead single, "Holding You Down (Goin' in Circles)", was released on July 10, 2010, and went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 2011. September 2010 brought the release of the album’s second single, "10 Seconds", which debuted at number 15 the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

Love Me Back was released on November 29, 2010, by J Records and debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200, selling 57,000 copies in its first week. The album was universally acclaimed by critics.

Billboard honored Sullivan as their 'Rising Star' for the year in December 2010.

2011-2020: Hiatus and Reality Show

In January 2011, Sullivan announced an indefinite hiatus from the music industry, and that October, RCA disbanded J Records along with Arista Records and Jive Records. With that, Sullivan came under RCA as a wider label.

In 2014, she announced her return to music with her third studio album, Reality Show. The lead single "Dumb", featuring American rapper Meek Mill, was released on May 12, 2014. This was followed by the second single "Forever Don't Last," which was released on September 16, 2014, and peaked at number 10 on the Adult R&B Songs chart.

Reality Show was released on January 13, 2015, to widespread critical acclaim, reaching number one on the Billboard R&B Albums and number two on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, as well as number 12 on the Billboard 200. The album earned Sullivan three Grammy Award nominations, including for Best R&B Album and Best Traditional R&B Performance ("Let It Burn").

2016 was a year for collaborations for Sullivan. She appeared on the tracks "Alabama", "Wither", "Hublots", and "Rushes" on Frank Ocean’s visual album, Endless. She also was the lead songwriter for "Thick of It", "Set Me Free", "Glow Up", and "Thank You" from Mary J. Blige’s album Strength of a Woman and contributed backing vocals to three of the tracks. With  Bryson Tiller, she released "Insecure" for the soundtrack for the second season of the HBO series of the same title.

After a quiet couple of years, in 2019, Sullivan was featured on Pentatonix's Christmas collection The Best of Pentatonix Christmas on the group's cover of "Joyful, Joyful".

2020-present: Heaux Tales

Sullivan released "Lost One" in August 2020, reaching number 11 on the Billboard R&B Digital Songs chart. This was followed by "Pick Up Your Feelings" in November 2020, which received two nominations for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance at the 64th Grammy Awards.

Heaux Tales was released on January 8, 2021, debuting at number 4 on the Billboard 200. Featuring Ari Lennox, Anderson .Paak, and H.E.R., the EP won Album of the Year at the 2021 BET Awards and the 2021 Soul Train Music Awards; and was named Album of the Year by NPR. It is also nominated for Best R&B Album at the 64th Grammy Awards.