Mya is a known American singer, actress and a songwriter who gained success in music from her young youth years.
She is especially known for her collaboration with Lil’Kim, Pink and Christina Aguilera on a big music hit called “Lady Marmalade”.
She is also known as Miss Mýa or Mýa Re.
Early years
She was born as Mýa Marie Harrison on October 10, 1979 in Washington D.C. in United States. Her parents are Theresa and Sherman Harrison. She has spent her childhood with her two brothers: Chaz and Nijel.
Her family was filled with musicians: her father was a musician and her mother was a great singer although she had worked as an accountant.
Mýa’s favorite childhood game was imitating Michael Jackson who was her big role model. She loved dancing and was very passionate about it.
She also learned to play the violine but dancing was her big love. After her mother saw that Mya is a great dance talent she enrolled her to ballet in 1982 and one year later she joined a tap group.
Although she wasn’t consistent in it, she gained great skills in tap dance so she was given an opportunity to study with Savion Glover, the most famous world tap dancer. She later performed for him.
Due to her skin color, she sometimes received bad comments in her childhood but she has found the way to ignore them which was easier because she started to be more noticed and popular.
She joined the dancing crew hired to perform at BET’s “Teen Summit” and was with them from 1996 to 1998.
Mýa also joined classes of hip hop snd jazz. Around her 15th birthday she has asked her father to learn her to sing better and more professional. He gave her support and confidence and realized that Mýa is confident in making a singing career. Sherman helped her in promotions of her demo tapes.
She graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in 1995 and enrolled “University of Maryland” but she was interested in music more than in education.
Career development
She was only 19 when she signed her first deal with Interscope Records (1998) and her first album was released the very same year.
The album was a big success and the most popular single from the album was “It’s All About Me”. This album called “Mýa and gained her two Soul Train Awards for it.The album was sold in almost 1,5 million copies .
Mýa guest appeared on Pras’ hit from 1998 called “Ghetto Supastar” and it received a Grammy nomination.
In 1999 she started her work on her second album unspired by Erica Jong’s novel and named “Fear of Flying”.
The album was featured with artists such as Robin Thicke, Wyclef Jran and Rodney Jerkins. This album was the first in which she was involved from A to Z: she has written songs, sang them, produced and mastered and everything else involved.
The album was released in 2000 but it had no bigger success until she released a second single from the album named “Case of the Ex” which turned into a mega-hit. This event made Interscope label to release her album again but this time the album was selling wild.
Her album was nominated for Soul Train Music Award for R&B/Soul Album. The album reached platinum and was sold in over one million copies so she became a superstar in a short period of time and fullfield her dreams of having a huge singing career.
Mýa was interested in all forms of art so she auditioned and gained her first movie role in 1999 in a thriller named “In Too Deep”. Leading roles in this movie were Ll Cool J and Omar Epps.
After this experience she became even more interested in film so she earned herself supporting roles in films such as Chicago, Shall We Dance and Cursed .
A role in the musical “Chicago” with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere was one of her favorite singers and acting gigs. Cursed was directed by Wes Craven and was a surprising experience for her.
In 2001, she began an interesting collaboration with three known music stars: Christina Aguilera, Pink and Lil’Kim. The four of them made a single “Lady Marmalade” which became a worldwide sensation. The single itself was produced by Missy Elliot.
The hit single was a big success and stayed on Billboard’s No.1 for over a month. Mýa also gave her voice to two cartoon characters: for “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” and “Moulin Rouge!”
The quartet performed their song on 2001 MTV Music Video Awards and gained great critics for the performance.
Mýa helped young artists through songwriting : she helped Allison and Tamar Braxton with their debut singles and albums.
In 2002, she performed with Lil’Kim, Pink and Christina on annual Grammmy awards.
In 2002, she was amongst the youngest winner of Grammy Awards for her collaboration with three known female artists in her version of “Lady Marmalade”, originally sang by Labelle in 1975.
One of her unreached dreams was acting in movies. Mya started searching for a role in 2002 and she found herself a great partin a musical film called “Chicago”.
In the next several years, she was given a few acting roles so she appeared in “Dirty Dancing: Havana” in “Shall We Dance” and in “Cursed”.
In 2003, when she was 23, her 3rd album was released by Interscope Records. It was titled “Moodring” and it reached gold.
She joined the contestors in “Dancing with the Stars” the same year and ended second in the finals. Mýa is an avid dancer.
She had a lot of endorsement deals with major companies such as Coca-Cola, Gap and Tommy Hilfiger. She was one of the best selling American singers with over 3 million sold albums.
Her third album came in 2003 under the title “Moodring.” It showed her sensitivity and sexuality and gave a summer hit named “My Love Is Like…Wo”. This album was certified gold and became a huge bestseller. She sang the theme for a video game “Bond 007: Everything or Nothing” in 2004.
In 2005 she was hired to promote Motorola’s first music phones alongside Madonna and Iggy Pop. In 2005 she signed a cintract withba known modelling agency: Ford Modeling Agency.
She signed a new contract with Universal Motown but never released the planned album due to many problems which rose in her life.
Her next album was named “Sugar & Spice” and was released by a Japanese record label “Manhattan Records” in 2008.
She also played a role in a comedy film “Love For Sale” in 2008, where she played a student.
In 2009 she released her first mixtape “Beauty & The Streets” with a rapper Bun B. The tape came out on iTunes and was noticed in a positive way.
In 2011 she was given a role in a comedy “The Heart Specialist” which was a huge success in the cinema.
Before of the release of her fourth album, she has switched to another record company she decided to release two independent albums made for Japan. She quit searching for a new record label and formed her own under the name “Planet 9″.
She was amongst the artist which sang on ” We Are the World 25″ for helping Haiti after the big earthquake.
In 2011 her new track was released on iTunes. Her new album “K.I.S.S. (Keep It Sexy & Simple)” was released only in Japan. The US version of the album was released at the end of 201 iTunes.
After that she released various digital singles for US market, named “Earthquake”, “Somebody Come Get This Bitch”, “Mr. Incredible” and “Evolve”.
In 2014 she decided it was time for her independent label Planet 9 to get busy. She has released an EP based on Valentine’s Day.
She joined the crew of “Bermuda Tentacles” and starred in this TV movie alongside Linda Hamilton.
A year after, she released an EP again for Valentine’s Day, named “Love Elevation Suite”.
2016 brought her a Grammy nomination for The Best R&B Album with her new album titled “Smoove Jones”.
At the beginning of 2018 she released two singles which are forthcoming her new album “TKO (The Knock Out)”.
She recorded a duet with Dionne Warwick and the song in question was a gospel song titled “Let There Be Light.”
Personal life
She was a vegeterian for a long time but today she is a vegan. She is very involved in the work of PETA.
She was highly influenced by successful female singers such as Sade Adu, Aretha Franklin, Madonna and Janet Jackson.
Since she is an astonishing dancer she had also known dacenrs who were her role models. They were Michael and Janet Jackson, Gene Kelly, Jimmy Slide and more.
She is currently single and she dated American football players DeSean Jackson and Larry Johnoson, rappers Game and Silk The Shoker and was rumoured to be in relationships with Jay Z and Gucci Mane.
Quick summary
Full name: Mýa Marie Harrison on October 10, 1979 in Washington D.C.
Date of birth: October 10, 1979
Birthplace: Washington D.C., US
Age: 39
Profession: singer, actress, songwriter, philanthropist
Height: 165 cm
Weight: 55 kgs
Net Worth: $4 million
