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music career started in a church choir and high school band. Encouraged by his older brother Claude's band, Take 6, to get a record deal, McKnight sent out demo tapes and, at the age of 19, signed his first recording deal with Mercury Records subsidiary Wing Records. McKnight's first release on Mercury was "The Way Love Goes," which peaked at number 11 after 19 weeks on the Billboard R&B charts. His two follow-up singles barely cracked the Billboard R&B Top 60, including "Love Is," a duet with Vanessa Williams featured on Beverly Hills 90210. He went on to release three more albums for Mercury records before moving to Motown Records. His final album with Mercury Records, 1997's Anytime sold over two million copies and was nominated for a Grammy. In 1999, McKnight released Back at One (his second release from Motown; after the Christmas album Bethlehem), which sold over three million copies. Throughout this period he recorded with some of the most well-respected artists in the business, ranging from Mary J. Blige to Josh Grobin, and has also made a name for himself as a songwriter, instrumentalist and producer, earning a reputation as a musical renaissance man.



McKnight kicked off the new millennium with 2001's Superhero, which had a decidedly rock edge to the title track, while 2003's U Turn was a fairly straightforward and ballad-filled disc. A divorce and some time playing guard for the California ABA basketball team the Ontario Warriors kept McKnight out of the musical picture for a couple years before 2005's Gemini marked his return. Ten followed in 2006. McKnight currently hosts a radio show, The Brian McKnight Morning Show with Pat Prescott on KTWV The Wave, a jazz station in Los Angeles, California. In October 2007 McKnight had his debut on Broadway in the show Chicago, proving once again that he has an incredible range of talent.