Mya
Birth name Mya Marie Harrison
Born October 10, 1979 (1979-10-10) (age 30)
Washington, D.C., United States
Genre(s) R&B, hip hop, soul, pop
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, record producer, actress, dancer, choreographer
Instrument(s) Vocals, Violin
Voice type(s) Mezzo-soprano
Years active 1998–present
Label(s) Interscope, Motown, Manhattan
Associated acts Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Pink, Missy Elliott, Dru Hill, Silkk the Shocker, Sisqó
Mya Marie Harrison (born October 10, 1979), professionally known mononymously as Mya, is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, actress, dancer, and choreographer.
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Harrison’s eponymous debut album with Interscope Records was released in April 1998, and sold over a million copies in the United States, producing the gold-certified top ten single “It’s All About Me” featuring Sisqo. Her second studio album, platinum-selling Fear of Flying, was released in 2000 and became a success stateside and worldwide, with lead single “Case of the Ex” becoming Mya’s breakthrough hit, reaching number-one on the Australian Singles Chart. A year after, Harrison won her first Grammy Award for the worldwide number-one hit “Lady Marmalade,” a cover version she recorded alongside Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, and Pink for the soundtrack of the film Moulin Rouge! (2001). The singer’s third album Moodring was released in July 2003 stateside and eventually certified gold by the RIAA. Following several label changes, Mya’s often-delayed fourth studio album, Liberation (2007), received a download-release in Japan only and led to her 2008 Japan-exclusive album Sugar & Spice.
Having expanded her career to acting and product endorsement deals, Harrison has been engaged in product endorsement deals with brands such as Coca-Cola, Iceberg, Tommy Hilfiger, and Motorola and has appeared in films such as Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004), Shall We Dance? (2004) and Cursed (2005). In 2002, she had a supporting role in the film adaptation of the 1975 Broadway musical Chicago, for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Filmography
Year Title Role
1999 In Too Deep Loretta
2002 Chicago Mona
2003 Volcano High Yu Cha-i
2004 Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights Lola Martinez
Hip Hop All Stars Herself
Shall We Dance? Vern’s Fiancée
2005 Cursed Jenny Tate
NCIS Samantha/Jade King
2006 Swap Meet Katrina
Ways of the Flesh Valerie
2007 The Metrosexual Jessica
2008 Cover Cynda
Love For Sale Kiely
Penthouse Mitra
2004–2008: Liberation and Sugar & Spice
Mya had been working on her fourth studio album on and off since 2004. Originally conceived as a project called Control Freak, the album’s first version was actually scheduled for a mid-2005 release and involving main production by Scott Storch, Dr. Dre, Lil Jon, Rockwilder and songwriter Sean Garrett. Although she intended to release a dance track called “Let It Go” at a particular time, the singer eventually decided to leave her management and A&M Records in fall 2005 before signing a new contract with Motown Records. Mya began consulting a few other producers to collaborate on the album, renamed Liberation, and in mid-2006, a buzz track entitled “Ayo!” was released onto the internet. Due to time-consuming “litigations, court, transitioning from label to label, teaching kids and building a studio” however, the song was never picked up as a single and the album’s release was pushed back again. In March 2007, the album’s actual lead single “Lock U Down”, a Scott Storch-produced collaboration with Lil Wayne, was sent to radio. After its commercial failure, a second single entitled “Ridin’” was released, but as the song saw minor success on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart only, Liberation was delayed once more and eventually bumped from the U.S. schedule. As a result, the album was never released physically anywhere but in Japan.
In 2008, Mya parted ways with Motown and contracted with a Japanese label, Manhattan Records. Having worked on new material since mid-2007, her fifth studio Sugar & Spice received a Japan-wide release in December 2008. Composed of production by less known producers, the album produced a new version of her single “Fallen,” a cover of Diana King’s hit “Shy Guy,” as well as the first and final single “Paradise.”
2009: Beauty & The Streets Vol.1 & 6th Studio Album
Mya is currently working on her 6th studio album due this summer and to be released on her own independent label, entitled Planet 9. She recently inked a deal with J. Prince’s Young Empire Music Group and will release a mixtape called Beauty & The Streets Vol.1 due this fall. First single, Show Me Something featuring Houston-rapper Bun B has already leaked onto the internet. Mya and Bun B shot the video for Show Me Something this weekend.
Early Life
Named after writer Maya Angelou, Mya Marie Harrison was one of three children born to Sherman and Theresa Harrison in Washington, D.C. She grew up in nearby suburban Maryland with her two younger brothers, Chaz and Nijel. Her mother worked as an accountant and her father sang with a number of top-40 bands in the area. Mya took violin lessons throughout her childhood, but dancing was her primary after-school activity. She took ballet lessons from the age of two and added jazz and tap dancing lessons to her schedule two years later. She entered some dance competitions with her brother as a partner, and then joined the Tappers With Attitude troop as a ten-year-old. Her tap dancing skills led to an opportunity to study with one of the best-known tap dancers in the country, Savion Glover of the Dance Theater of Harlem, when he came to Washington for a workshop. Glover later chose Mya for a solo spot in a dance performance at the Kennedy Center.
With an African-American father and a mother of Italian descent, Mya sometimes had to endure insensitive comments about her ethnic background. Her accomplishments as a dancer, however, helped Mya to make the transition into adolescence and deal with the peer pressure that many teenagers experience. As she explained in an appearance on Canada’s Much Music television show in January of 2001, “There was a time in my life when I wasn’t popular and accepted by kids in school. I was made fun of with braces and kinky hair, and being from a multicultural family, et cetera. … And it really hurts when you’re that age, but later when you get something of your own or you get involved in activities like a sport, you begin to be accepted for what you do, and your personality and who you are, instead of your clothes and how you look and the name designer brands you have on.” As a popular performer, Mya would later draw on her experiences to speak to girls’ groups as part of the Secret of Self-Esteem program for adolescents, addressing issues such as body image, peer pressure, and gender stereotypes.
While she continued to study dance and appeared on Teen Summit on the Black Entertainment Television network, Mya changed her focus to music as she entered her teens. With the help of her father, she put together a demo tape when she was 15 and began to scout around for a record deal while she was still in high school. After an audition in the living room of University Music Entertainment president Haqq Islam, Mya got herself a management deal which led to a recording contract with University and its major-label affiliate, Interscope Records. Mya finished high school when she was 17 years old and subsequently took a few classes at the University of Maryland in College Park, but the teenager’s primary focus was on the recording studio.
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