It didn't take long for Jazmine Sullivan to find her niche allowing her to meld her songwriting, vocal maturity, and her actual age into a vessel that reaches the young people she sings for.

Jazmine Sullivan - Fulfilling Her Name

"I had people creating who Jazmine Sullivan was. But it's important now that it's totally me - everything that I talk about in my songs, they're my ideas. They come from my personal experiences and my observations ... because I wrote everything, I came in knowing who I was, and I knew what direction I wanted to take the album in."

It didn't take long for Jazmine Sullivan to find her niche allowing her to meld her songwriting, vocal maturity, and her actual age into a vessel that reaches the young people she sings for.

Jazmine Sullivan - The Beginnings

Jazmine Sullivan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 9, 1987 to Pam and Don Sullivan, joining her older brother Justin and was followed by younger brother Julian. Jazmine was named for her mother's love of jazz music and dreams for her daughter to love it too.

At the age of 5 the Sullivan's moved into the Strawberry Mansion's third floor when her father took a position there as curator. Jazmine began singing in the junior choir at the tender age of five or six. Before she was eleven she was singing with the young adult choir at St. Andrews. When she expressed interest in expanding her genre, Mom Pam inundated her with music from the icons ~ among them were Franklin, Hathaway, Wonder, and Prince. Pam had musical ties from her tours as a backup singer during the 70's and playwriting in the 90's

The timeline of Jazmine Sullivan's musical accomplishments is amazing. She made her national television debut on Showtime at the Apollo at 11, singing Accept What God Allows. In 2000, at 13, Jazmine began singing at local spots in Philadelphia, one of which was the open-mic salon, Black Lilly, held at The Five Spot in Old City Philadelphia, where female jazz was booming, which also led to being invited to appear on Stevie Wonder's Toy for Tots show with other greats and singing at the birthday party for his grandson. Her album debut was singing backup on Kindred's Surrender to Love in 2003. At 15 and a sophomore at Philadelphia High School for the Creative & Performing Arts (CAPA), she signed with Jive Records.

On her way

Artist Jazmine Sullivan wrote and recorded for Jive Records from 2002 to 2005, before being dropped by them at 18. Several of the songs she wrote or co-wrote ended up on albums that later became hits. Her name has been on background credits for Fantasia's Free Yourself and songwriting credits for Milian's album Say I. In 2007, Jazmine signed with J Records, on her own terms. She wrote and recorded her freshman album, Fearless, which was released in September, 2008. She hit success in the UK and Fearless was officially released in June, 2009.

At the age of 21, Jazmine learned she'd been nominated for five different Grammy Awards - Best Contemporary R&B Album, Best New Artist, Best R&B Song, Bust Your Windows, Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance, In Love With Another Man, and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Need U Bad. Although she didn't take home a Grammy she said, "It was definitely an honor to be nominated for five, especially best new artist. I didn't leave with any, but I know that there is more coming. I have my entire career ahead of me. I'm not worried about it." 2009 nominations also included: Soul Train Awards - Best New Artist, and Best R&B song for Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Image Awards - Outstanding New Artist, BET Awards - Best Female R&B Artist, Best New Artist, and the Centric Award, which she won. In 2010 she has already been nominated for two Grammy Awards -Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song for Lions, Tigers & Bears.

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