''R U the Girl'' (also known as ''R U the Girl with T-Boz and Chilli'') is an American

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

music competition A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles, solo (music), soloists, composers, conducting, conductors, musicologists or compositions. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are h ...

series that aired on

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

in 2005. The series featured

Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins Tionne Tenese Watkins (born April 26, 1970), also known by her stage name T-Boz, is an American singer. Watkins rose to fame in the early 1990s as a member of the girl-group TLC. She has won four Grammy Awards for her work with TLC. Early life ...

and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, the remaining members of the all-girl R&B group

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

whose former member,

Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes Lisa Nicole Lopes (May 27, 1971 – April 25, 2002), also known by her stage name Left Eye, was an American singer and rapper. She was a member of the R&B girl group TLC, alongside Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas. Besides ...

, died in a car crash in

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

in 2002. Initially promoted by the network as a contest to replace Lopes 3 years after her death, both Watkins and Thomas clarified that the winner of the contest would not be joining TLC full-time and would not be a full-time replacement member; the winner would only provide guest vocals on a new single by the duo.

Synopsis

On June 25, 2004, Tionne Watkins and Rozonda Thomas announced that they were pitching a reality television show that was eventually picked up for development by UPN. The casting tour for the series began on February 5, 2005 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, with tour stops in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, and

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. After the semifinalists were selected, they were each judged on their ability to sing by Watkins and Thomas. Filming for the main episodes concluded on April 26, 2005. The program aired nine episodes, with seven episodes being the main episodes, the eighth episode being an overview of the series and original TLC home videos, and the ninth being the series finale. The episodes' names are also puns based on TLC's songs. The finale episode was aired live and featured the final two contestants O'so Krispie and Mirrah Fay-Parker. Krispie (Tiffany Baker), a 20-year-old

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

from Atlanta, was ultimately chosen as the winner and performed the single "I Bet" with Watkins and Thomas on the series finale.

Episodes

"I Bet"

"I Bet" is a song by American

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring two or more women in music, female singers who generally vocal harmony, harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female p ...

. It was written by band members

and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas along with

Rico Love Richard Preston Butler Jr. (born December 3, 1982), better known by his stage name Rico Love, is an American record producer, singer, songwriter, and rapper. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but split his childhood between Milwaukee, Wisco ...

and Melvin "Saint Nick" Coleman, with production helmed by the latter. The

uptempo A variety of musical terms is encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special musical meanings ...

track features rapper O'so Krispie, the winner of ''R U the Girl'', a 2005

reality show whose purpose was to find a singer that would record a song with TLC. Before Krispie was announced as the winner of the show, she and fellow finalist and eventual runner up Mirrah Fay-Parker each recorded separate versions of the song, each contributing backing vocals and a rap that they had composed themselves. However, despite the Krispie version being released as a single, Krispie's songwriting contributions are uncredited on the single. The resulting track was titled "I Bet," which was commercially released as a single in October 2005. The physical CD single sold 2,000 units in the United States, according to

Nielsen SoundScan Luminate Data, LLC (formerly MRC Data and P-MRC Data) is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) and Variety Business Intellige ...

, while the digital download of the song has moved over 4,000. The record was later added to the digital reissue of TLC's compilation album '' Now & Forever: The Hits''.

Track listing

;Digital download #"I Bet" – 3:23

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Now & Forever: The Hits''. *

Songwriting A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

– Richard Butler, Melvin Coleman,

Rozonda Thomas Rozonda Ocielian Thomas (born February 27, 1971), also known by her stage name Chilli, is an American singer, dancer and actress who is a member of the group TLC, one of the best-selling girl groups of the late 1990s. Early life Thomas was bor ...

Tionne Watkins Tionne Tenese Watkins (born April 26, 1970), also known by her stage name T-Boz, is an American singer. Watkins rose to fame in the early 1990s as a member of the girl-group TLC. She has won four Grammy Awards for her work with TLC. Early life ...

, O'so Krispie (uncredited) *

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

– Melvin "Saint Nick" Coleman * Mixing – Leslie Brathwaite, Carlton Lynn *

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

– Kori Anders, Wyatt Coleman * Mastering – Chaz Harper

References

External links

* {{UPN 2005 singles Songs written by Rico Love TLC (group) songs Songs written by Tionne Watkins Arista Records singles 2003 songs Songs written by Rozonda Thomas 2005 American television series debuts 2005 American television series endings 2000s American reality television series 2000s American music television series American English-language television shows Singing talent shows TLC (group) UPN original programming African-American reality television series