Amerie Mi Marie Rogers (born January 12, 1980) is an American R&B music artist as well as model and occasional actress. She debuted in 2002 with her sleeper hit single "Why Don't We Fall in Love" and the subsequent album All I Have. In 2004, she acted alongside Katie Holmes in the film First Daughter and released her follow up album Touch in 2005, which included the single "1 Thing", her biggest hit to date. 2007 saw her experimenting with 80s-inspired new wave and pop with her album ''Because I Love It'', which included the international singles "Take Control" and "Gotta Work". In 2009, she released her fourth album In Love and War, in which she incorporated 90s-inspired R&B and hip-hop, and elements of soft rock. She went on a nine-year hiatus from music, with her next album, an album called 4AM Mulholland, being released in 2018. Outside of music, she is an avid bookworm, co-writing an anthology book with several other authors called Because You Love to Hate Me.
Her music is known for including go-go beats, percussion, gorgeous harmonies and aggressive vocals. Her albums have generally been well-received by critics.
Discography:
Studio Albums
- All I Have (2002)
- Touch (2005)
- Because I Love It (2007)
- In Love and War (2009)
She has collaborated or have had her songs remixed by several rappers, including but not limited to: Nas, Ludacris, Royce da 5'9, Fabulous and Jay-Z. She also collaborated with Asian pop artists such as Se7en and 4 Minutes, and has expressed interest in working with K-pop artists again in the future.
This musician shows examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: Her last name (Rogers) is relevantly common in comparison to her exotic first name. Also applies to her parents (Mi Suk and Joe).
- Album Title Drop: From Gotta Work: "I do it because I love it!"
- Bawdy Song: "Touch".
- Break-Up Song: A lot of In Love and War is this. "Streets Alone" from Because I Love It is a particularly dark version of this trope.
- Concept Album: Touch is considered this.
- Funk: "Take Control".
- God-Is-Love Songs: "All Roads".
- Intercourse with You: "That's What U R", "Touch", "Need You Tonight" and a few others. "1 Thing" could be about this as well, depending on your interpretation.
- It Will Never Catch On: Her record company held this attitude concerning 1 Thing. It wasn't until Amerie leaked the track to radio stations herself and it started to receive airplay that her label finally started to back the project (if mildly).
- Let's Duet: With Trey Songz in "Pretty Brown" and Carl Thomas in "Can We Go".
- Morality Ballad: "All Roads" is about how God remains with you through all of your troubles.
- Ms. Fanservice: A normally downplayed example of this trope, but she was primarily this during her Touch era in 2005, exemplified in some of her videos such as "1 Thing" and "Touch", where she shows off her body much more thanks to promiscuous revealing outfits and seductive dancing. (a contrast to her girl-next-door look in her debut album era)
- New Sound Album: Because I Love It
- Older Than They Look: Amerie is currently in her mid 40s but can easily pass for someone in their 20s, as most people point out that she has not aged since her 1 Thing era in 2005.
- Sampling: "1 Thing" is based on a sample from New Orleanian funk band The Meters' 1969 cover of "Oh! Calcutta".
- Self-Backing Vocalist: 95% of her music is this. Usually to fantastic results.
- Silly Love Songs: The gist of her first album.
- Smarter Than You Look: People are surprised to learn that she writes all of her own music and has co-produced several of her albums.
- Title-Only Chorus: "Why Don't We Fall in Love", "Tell Me You Love Me", "Love's Off the Chain", among others
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Many of her song titles are spelled this way ("Why R U", "That's What U R", "Losing U", "Hate 2 Love U", etc).
