Amerie leaped to fame in 2005 with the platinum-selling smash single "1 Thing," a masterful piece of dance-floor R&B cowritten and produced by Beyonce cohort Rich Harrison. The song was a perfect pop platter, offering a taste of the times while somehow sounding one step ahead of the competition. Better still, it was effortlessly sexy, helped along by a video in which Amerie wiggled her backside provocatively at the camera, clad in the shortest shorts imaginable.
It was a world away from the slick R&B ballads that rounded out Amerie's 2002 debut album "All I Have," and its success was a trick she has yet to repeat, despite the fine pop songs on her her 2005 and 2006 albums "Touch" and "Because I Love It."
Chart success be damned — it's the music that counts, and Amerie (born Amerie Mi Marie Rogers in 1980) is no stranger to juicy tunes. Her mixed African-American-Korean heritage and childhood spent traveling the world with her military father no doubt contributed to her universal appeal that bolsters R&B with something edgier.