Jazmine Sullivan

Jazmine Jazmine, who is Philadelphia native was born and raised there. Pam her mother, who is Jazmine's mom, was a backing vocalist for Philadelphia International Records. In the age of five the father of her was appointed to be Philadelphia's Historic Strawberry Mansion curator. Their family eventually moved into this historical building. In 2005 she graduated from the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts as singer-music major. Sullivan was a contralto singer for the children's choir and then, a few more years later, she performed in the adults choir. Sullivan was not exposed to secular music initially. "I was singing for the first time solo at church and a person wanted me to sign up to record a gospel song when I was eleven. However, I was not ready to take that step," she says. "Then McDonald's offered a competition for kids from cities. The contest gave me the opportunity to perform Accept the Grace of God on Showtime Apollo. The audience was extremely enthusiastic." Stevie Wonder sang her part when he turned 13. Sullivan began her contract with Jive Records at the age fifteen. There, she recorded the entire album but the album never came out. Sullivan was eventually dropped by the labels. Missy Elliott was the producer for a few tracks from their debut album. For instance "Backstabbers" was a viral track produced by Timbaland and written by Elliott.