Amanda Leah Brown (born June 4, 1985) is an American singer and dancer from New York City. She was a contestant on the third season of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

’s ''

The Voice The Voice may refer to: Fictional entities * The Voice or Presence, a fictional representation of God in DC Comics * The Voice (''Dune''), a fictional ability in the ''Dune'' universe * The Voice, a character in the American TV series ''Cleo ...

'' and finished in fifth place.

Early life

Amanda Leah Brown was born on June 4, in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York, the oldest of three children. She is Puerto-Rican/Jamaican. She began singing at her local church in the Bronx at the age of six. At the age of 12, Brown decided to audition for the prestigious New York performing arts school, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. There she was introduced to a world of music: classical, jazz, pop, and rock. With a background in gospel music, Brown began to explore other music genres and experiment with her own singing/songwriting style. At the age of 18, Brown attended

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

in Washington, D.C. After her first year of college, she decided to return to New York to pursue a career in music and transferred to

Baruch College Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates unde ...

. Amanda's younger sister, Samara performed on the 21st season of The Voice. John Legend and Ariana Grande turned their chairs and she chose John Legend as her coach.

Music career

While attending college in New York, Brown began auditioning for various singing opportunities, which eventually led her to a life-changing offer to join

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Col ...

on her worldwide As I Am Tour in 2007 as a background singer. Brown went on to sing backing vocals for artists such as

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a rec ...

and Stevie Wonder. Brown began singing at the popular live-music venue, the Village Underground, located in the lower west side of Manhattan. In 2011, Brown digitally released her first single on iTunes entitled "Dreamer", which was co-written by Texacal, and produced by Z Musik.

''The Voice''

In 2012, Brown auditioned for the third season of ''

''. She won a spot on Cee Lo Green's team, and was later stolen by Adam Levine after a duet performance with Trevin Hunte of Mariah Carey's "

Vision of Love "Vision of Love" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey for her Mariah Carey (album), eponymous debut studio album (1990). It was written by Carey and Ben Margulies. After being featured on Carey's demo tape for Columbia R ...

", which was considered one of the best battles in the history of ''The Voice''. She had also become the first stolen contestant in the history of ''The Voice''. Brown's biggest moment came during her performance of Aerosmith's " Dream On", which was met with praise in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' magazine. During her appearance on ''The Voice'', Brown appeared on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and Billboard Digital Songs with her singles of " Dream On", "

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

" and " Someone Like You". She was also the first contestant on season three to perform by herself alongside another major artist (

Ne-Yo Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He gained fame for his songwriting abilities when he penned Mario's 2004 hit " Let Me Love You ...

) for a performance that opened the live show on December 3, 2012. Despite her success on the show, Brown was eliminated after making it to the top six contestants. During her exit interview, Brown stated, "This has been an extremely beautiful and amazing ride, and I owe my existence on this show for as long as I was here to

he fans He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

So from the bottom of my heart – thank you."

Performances and results

: – Studio version of performance reached the top 10 on iTunes

After ''The Voice''

After appearing on ''The Voice'', Brown recorded a cover of the James Brown funk track " The Payback" for the soundtrack to the 2013 film ''

Identity Thief ''Identity Thief'' is a 2013 American road comedy film directed by Seth Gordon, screenplay by Craig Mazin, story by Mazin and Jerry Eeten and starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy. The film tells the fictional story of Sandy Patterson, wh ...

''. She was also a contributing writer for ''Parade'' Magazine, publishing episode reviews of ''The Voice: Season Four''. In May 2013, Brown performed

Magic to Do "Magic to Do" is the opening song from the musical ''Pippin''. It was introduced by Ben Vereen in the Broadway production and performed by Northern Calloway in London. The entire song runs around four minutes. The song is sung by the Leading Playe ...

at the

Ben Vereen Benjamin Augustus Vereen (born October 10, 1946) is an American actor, dancer and singer. Vereen gained prominence for his performances in the original Broadway productions of the musicals '' Jesus Christ Superstar'', for which he received a T ...

Lifetime Achievement Gala at her former High School Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Within a week of her Ben Vereen feature, Brown also performed both

Ain't No Mountain High Enough "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is a song written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson in 1966 for the Tamla label, a division of Motown. The composition was first successful as a 1967 hit single recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and ...

and

How Am I Supposed to Live Without You "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" is a song written in 1982 by Doug James and Michael Bolton. The ballad has been recorded by many artists around the world, in several languages, most notably Bolton himself, becoming something of a modern p ...

in two duets with

Michael Bolton Michael Bolotin
, The Jewish Historical Society of New Haven, 1998. (born February 26, 1953), known professio ...

Fox & Friends ''Fox & Friends'' is an American daily morning news and talk program that airs on Fox News. It premiered on February 1, 1998, and is currently hosted by Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade on weekdays. Will Cain, Rachel Campos- ...

In June 2013, Brown released a song on EMW Music Group's album "Shuffle". All the proceeds from the album went to

VH1 Save The Music Foundation VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

. In December 2015, Brown performed backing vocals for

in the NBC special, " Adele Live in New York City" at Radio City Music Hall. Brown then went on to tour with Adele for her

Adele Live 2016 Adele Live 2016 (titled as Adele Live 2017 for the shows in 2017) was the third concert tour by English singer-songwriter Adele in support of her third studio album, '' 25''. It began on 29 February 2016, in Belfast, Northern Ireland at the S ...

world tour from February 29, 2016 to June 29, 2017. In February 2018, Brown dropped "Believers", the first single of her first full-length project "Dirty Water", released on May 11, 2018. In April 2018, Brown released "No Good", the second single of her debut album "Dirty Water".

Discography

* ''Dirty Water'' (2018)

Singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Amanda 1985 births 21st-century American singers American contemporary R&B singers Singers from New York (state) The Voice (franchise) contestants Living people American female dancers American dancers 20th-century African-American women singers American women rock singers African-American rock singers 21st-century American women singers 21st-century African-American women singers