Ne-Yo

Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo (/ˈniːjoʊ/ NEE-yoh), is an American singer and songwriter. Regarded as a leading figure of 2000s R&B music, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including three Grammy Awards. He gained recognition for his songwriting abilities following the success of his first major credit, Mario's 2004 single "Let Me Love You". Its release prompted a meeting between Ne-Yo and Def Jam's then-president Jay-Z, resulting in a contract in which he released four studio albums, each of which spawned hit songs.

Ne-Yo's 2005 debut single, "Stay" (featuring Peedi Peedi) was released the following year to lukewarm commercial reception, though his 2006 single, "So Sick", became his breakthrough hit as it peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100. Both songs, 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 peaked atop the Billboard 200 and saw positive critical reception. Furthermore, the album yielded 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 albums, Because of You (2007) and Year of the Gentleman (2008), were met with continued success, peaking at numbers one and two on the Billboard 200, respectively. The former won Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, while the latter was nominated for the award, as well as for Album of the Year. They spawned the US-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 received double platinum certification by the RIAA—selling two million copies—as well as triple platinum certification 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 in favor of its coequal Universal Music Group subsidiary, Motown two years later. 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 despite a steep critical decline. It was supported by the Billboard Hot 100-top ten single "Time of Our Lives" (with Pitbull) and the strip club-inspired 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.

Shaffer Chimere Smith was born on October 18, 1979, in Camden, Arkansas to parents Lorraine and Shaffer Smith, both of whom are also musicians. As a young child, he was raised by his mother after she separated from his father. His mother then relocated the family to Las Vegas, Nevada.

While in the Las Vegas Academy, Smith adopted the stage name GoGo and joined an R&B group called Envy, who appeared during amateur night on Showtime at the Apollo and on the short lived MTV series The Cut (hosted by Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of TLC). The group disbanded in 2000, and Smith continued to write songs for other artists before starting his solo career. The stage name Ne-Yo was coined by Big D Evans, a producer with whom Ne-Yo once worked, because Evans claimed that Ne-Yo sees music like the character Neo sees the Matrix.

After Envy disbanded in 2000, Columbia Records signed Ne-Yo, but the label dropped him before he could release his already-recorded first album. American singer Marques Houston happened to hear "That Girl", which Ne-Yo had planned to release as his debut single from his then-unreleased album. Houston re-recorded the song and released it as a single for his 2003 album MH. The release of the song led to Ne-Yo being recognized as a top songwriter.