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Grammy-nominated for several times, highlighted with platinum RIAA certifications, incredible raspy soprano singer, talented songwriter and actress, television producer that are all about Keyshia Cole.
For today, the artist has released 7 albums, starred in 13 films, reality, and documentary series, headlined 4 tours, and supported 5 tours. Clearly, Keyshia managed to build a successful career, but how did she do that? Actually, Keyshia has been fond of music since she was 12 years old. Let’s find out more about the artist’s way.
Keyshia Myeshia Johnson (then Keyshia Cole) was born on October 15, 1981, in the largest city of California state, in Oakland. She was adopted by family friends Leon and Yvonne Cole when the girl was two years old. Her biological parents are Francine Lons and Virgil Hunter. Only in 2016, Keysha was able to see her dad for the first time after official confirmation of their family connection. The music industry firstly met the girl together with her brother Sean, also known as Nutt-So gangster rapper. So, at the age of 12, Keysha had already recorded with MC Hammer, the American rapper. Sean had a significant influence on the girl’s desire to make music the main life occupation. He introduced Keysha to his friend Tupac Shakur that promised the young girl to help in building a successful singer career. But the strongest impact on her development had Keysa’s break up with a boyfriend in her 16th years. After the event, Cole decided to move to Los Angeles in order to pursue a music career. Back in those years, she had already collaborated with several artists from her native town. But in 2002, she also managed to sign a contract with A&M Records A&R Ron Fair after he had listened to Cole's unfinished first song “Love”.
A&R Ron Fair became a great mentor for the young singer. Cole’s second single, "(I Just Want It) To Be Over", reached №1 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100. And, her debut studio album debuted at №6 on the Billboard 200. It was released on June 21, 2005, sold 89,000 copies in the first week of release, and over 2 million copies in total. In 2007, A&M Records merged with Octone Records, thus, Keyshia dealt with Geffen Records, the subsidiary label of the Universal Music Group and Interscope Records. So, her second album, “Just Like You”, was released in that year, but already under Geffen. This album had become more successful than the previous one, it reached the second position on the US Billboard 200 chart and there were sold over 281,000 copies in its first week. Like the first album, it had been certified platinum by RIAA.
The third album, “A Different Me”, also got a platinum certification from the RIAA and released at №2 on the US Billboard 200, but gave more sales. At the same time, Cole starred in films, TV shows, and series. In 2006, she premiered her 6 episode documentary series "Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is", on BET.
In 2010, Keyshia surprised fans with her engaging with Daniel Gibson, the former NBA player. Then the young couple announced the birth of their first child, a son. And, in 2011 they arranged the official wedding that was filmed on their new BET reality TV series Keyshia and Daniel: Family First. By the way, Keysha returned to the music industry and began creating her fourth album in 3 months after the birth of her son. The new album was released on December 21, 2010, and got less recognition than its predecessors: there were sold only 128,000 copies in its first week. Although the singer collaborated with such popular artists as Timbaland, Nicki Minaj, Tank, and Faith Evans, the album hasn't been RIAA certified gold yet. Despite falling sales, Keyshia continued working on the fifth album that was released in 2012. By the way, there were some differences between Keyshia and Manny Halley, but in 2013 they had been resolved, so Halley became Cole’s manager again.
One year later, Cole released the next album titled “Point of No Return”. In that 2014 year, she also announced a break up with her husband. In 2016, Cole signed a contract with Sony's Epic Records. And started working on the seventh album, “11:11 Reset”. The singer explained that the fact of her seeing 1111 constantly during the year she perceived as a sign to name the next album using the number. The album sold only 15,000 copies within the first week after its release. So, it was Cole's lowest sales number for the first week ever. Despite this, her music still touches souls not only by the deep senses but also by incredible professional performance. Thus, Keyshia Cole was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 50th Grammy Awards. Currently, Keyshia Cole is creating the following album together with A&R executive and producer Ron Fair.