With her outspoken personality and distinctive raspy-voiced tunes,
Macy Gray has staked a unique place for herself in the musical world and one that millions of fans appreciate. She was born Natalie McIntyre on September 6, 1967 in Canton, Ohio. "Macy Gray" was actually the name of a male family friend of the McIntyres, which Natalie would use in her future screenplays and eventually would claim as her own name. Gray’s parents wanted her to choose a profession like law for her career, but Gray had other plans and moved to Los Angeles to study screenwriting at USC.
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While in LA, she recorded a demo tape to help out some friends. The tape ultimately found its way to Epic Records, which signed the singer in 1998. Her debut album, 1999’s On How Life Is, was an autobiographical piece that blended hip-hop, funk, jazz, pop, and rap and spawned the single "Do Something,” which made her a Grammy winning-star. She was also nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist in 2001, but lost out to
Christina Aguilera. Nevertheless, On How Life Is went on to sell more than 7 million copies worldwide and contained several Macy Gray songs that went onto be chart toppers.
To date, Gray has released four studio albums, one compilation album, and one live album—with her fourth studio album, Big, released in March 2007. The album followed a narrative that mirrored the singer/songwriters own experiences over previous few years and included Macy Gray songs dealing with her husband leaving ("Finally Made Me Happy," "Shoo Be Doo," "
Get Out"), being a single mom ("What I Gotta Do," "
Okay"), her memories of the good times ("Ghetto Love," "
Glad You're Here"), hopes of finding Mr. Right ("One") and the possibility of growing old together ("
Slowly”). Gray’s larger than life persona has also landed her several film roles, including stints in Training Day, Spider-Man, and Idlewild. Fans of Gray’s outrageous antics and considerable singing/songwriting talent can’t wait to see what comes next.