Ne-Yo

Its lead single, "Closer" earned a nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, while its follow-up, "Miss Independent" 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).

Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo, is an American R&B singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer.

Regarded as a leading figure of 2000s R&B music, he is the recipient of numerous accolades including three Grammy Awards.

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.

For the next two years, Ne-Yo continued writing songs, some of which have not been officially released.

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 successful studio albums and numerous hit songs for the label.

Ne-Yo's debut single, "Stay" (featuring Peedi Peedi) was released the following year to lukewarm commercial reception, although its follow-up, "So Sick" became his breakthrough hit as it peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100.

He contributed songs to American singer Teedra Moses's 2004 album Complex Simplicity, Christina Milian's It's About Time, and the American boy band Youngstown, none of which, however, brought Ne-Yo much mainstream attention.

Ne-Yo has also contributed songs to singers Mary J. Blige, B2K, Faith Evans, and Musiq, among others.

A breakthrough came when Ne-Yo wrote "Let Me Love You" for American singer Mario.

The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and later stayed at the top spot for nine weeks.

After the successful release, Tina Davis, former A&R representative for Def Jam Recordings, arranged an informal meeting with label head L.A. Reid.

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 earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album and received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in addition to similar certifications in the UK, Japan and Australia.

Because of You (2007), Ne-Yo's second studio album, also peaked the Billboard 200 and won Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.

His third studio album, Year of the Gentleman (2008), saw continued success and yielded a nomination for the award, as well as for Album of the Year.

Libra Scale (2010), Ne-Yo's fourth studio album, was met with mild 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 supported by the strip club-inspired single, "She Knows" (featuring Juicy J), while his seventh album, Good Man (2018) peaked at number 33 on the Billboard 200.

His ninth album, Self Explanatory (2022) scarcely 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 in Camden, Arkansas.

Both of his parents were musicians, and of African-American descent.

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).