Biography
Born Tiffany Cobb on March 16, 1976 in Providence, Rhode Island, Blu Cantrell is a Grammy-nominated R&B and soul singer. Her mother is an Italian-American jazz singer while his father was an African-American National Basketball Association player. His music career started out as singing back-up for the likes of Puff Daddy, Truth Hurts, and Faith Evans. After being discovered by Red Zone Entertainment in early 2000, Cantrell signed up a contract with Artista Records. Her debut album “So Blu” peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200 Chart, eventually reaching platinum status in the US. A single off the album, “Hit eem Up Style (Oops!),” reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and earned her Grammy and American Music Award nominations.
Cantrell’s second album “Bittersweet” released in 2003, however, failed to reach the same success as its predecessor. One song off it, “Breathe,” although failing to break into the US charts, peaked at number for four weeks at the UK, and went on to become one of the most successful singles of the year in Europe and even Australia. She nearly posed nude for Playboy in 2003, changing her mind at the last minute because she felt it might affect her singing career.
Cantrell is also a contestant in the NBC reality show Celebrity Circus, which features six celebrities who will learn the ropes of circus life, including mastering death-defying stunts with high wires, flying trapezes, and fire dancing. The contestants will then face a panel of judges for critique. Talking about her experience on the show, Cantrell admits early on that she is afraid of heights, so she knew beforehand that she had to conquer it. “So when I went in, I said, ‘I’m going to do this. I’m going to do it for me.’ And I went and I did it, and I got up there, and it was hell.” She says for the most part, it is a “mixture of terror and of wanting to overcome it.”
