Ne-Yo
Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo ( NEE-yoh), is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He first gained recognition for his songwriting abilities after having written Mario's 2004 single "Let Me Love You", the success of which led to a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings under then-president Jay-Z the next year. Regarded as a preeminent figure in 2000s R&B music, he is the recipient of numerous accolades—including three Grammy Awards.
His 2005 single, "So Sick", marked his commercial breakthrough, peaking atop the Billboard Hot 100 by the following year. The song, along with the follow-up singles "When You're Mad" and "Sexy Love", preceded the release of his debut studio album, In My Own Words (2006), which debuted atop the Billboard 200 and was critically praised. It also earned two nominations at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards and received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in addition to similar certifications in the UK, Japan and Australia.
His second and third studio albums, Because of You (2007) and Year of the Gentleman (2008), continued his commercial success, reaching numbers one and two on the Billboard 200, respectively. Because of You won Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, while Year of the Gentleman was nominated for the same award and for Album of the Year. The albums spawned the U.S. top-ten singles "Because of You", "Closer", and "Miss Independent"; the latter won Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. Year of the Gentleman was certified double platinum by the RIAA and triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
Libra Scale (2010), Ne-Yo's fourth studio album, was met with moderate success on international charts and reached number nine on the US Billboard 200. Seeing an overall decline in commercial reception, he parted ways with Def Jam and signed with its fellow Universal Music Group subsidiary, Motown, as both a recording artist and short-tenured label executive.. His fifth album, R.E.D. (2012), peaked at number four on the chart and was preceded by the single "Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself)", which peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked atop the UK Singles Chart. His sixth album, Non-Fiction (2015), was met with similar commercial response in spite of a steep critical decline. It was supported by the Billboard Hot 100-top ten single "Time of Our Lives" (with Pitbull) and top 40 single, "She Knows" (featuring Juicy J). His seventh album, Good Man (2018), peaked at number 33 on the Billboard 200, while his eighth and ninth albums, Another Kind of Christmas (2019) and Self Explanatory (2022), narrowly entered the chart.
Alongside his recording career, Ne-Yo served as a judge for the reality competition series World of Dance from 2017 to 2020 alongside Jennifer Lopez and Derek Hough. In 2021, Ne-Yo competed as Badger on the second season of The Masked Singer UK, and finished in second place. In 2023, he competed on the tenth season of The Masked Singer, as the Cow and finished in first place. According to Recording Industry Association of America, Ne-Yo has sold 29 million certified albums and singles in the United States. Billboard ranked "Give Me Everything" and "Knock You Down" among the Greatest Songs of the Summer of all time. Ne-Yo has yielded five number one singles on the UK Singles Chart, and spent 315 weeks within the chart's Top 75. Ne-Yo also has four songs listed on Motown's Top 100 songs of the Millennium in the UK—the fifth most entries on the list.
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