India Arie: More than Successful!

India Arie is a well-known R&B and neo soul songwriter, guitarist and singer.  She was born in Denver, Colorado on October 3, 1976; however, she has West Indian and African American descendents.  India Arie is how her band is called.  Her artistic career started when she was very young since she was encouraged and supported by her parents.  In fact, her mother, whose name is Joyce, was a singer.  These days, she is India’s stylist.  On the other hand, her father is Ralph Simpson, the famous basketball player. When she was in college, she found out her passion about being a guitarist.

Her more formal artistic career began with an independent music collective that was co-founded.  At this stage, she contacted Motown CEO called Kedar Massenburg.  Hence, her album Acoustic Soul was incredibly-well accepted since the concept of the album was unique due to the fact that it could satisfy hip-hop, blues, neo-soul, folk and troubadour-style listeners.  Acoustic Soul was released in 2001 and went double platinum.  One year later, India Arie’s Voyage to India was released.  This album debuted as #1 on the R&B Billboard chart.  Actually, she won a Grammy for Best R&B album.  In addition, her song “Little Things” won a Grammy for Best Urban/Alternative Performance.  This album went gold soon.

Moreover, it is remarkable that India Arie has been 10 times nominated to the Grammy Awards since 2002.  Her third album is planned to be released on June 27, 2006.  Obviously, it would be as successful as the two previous ones since India Arie and her music is believed to be a key icon, mainly, in the R&B style.