Jazmine Sullivan

Jazmine was raised and born from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pam her mother, who is Jazmine's mom, was once a backing singer for Philadelphia International Records. As a child, her father was appointed to be one of the cities' Historic Strawberry Mansion curator. Their family eventually moved into this historical building. In 2005 she graduated from Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts in the class of a vocal music major. Sullivan performed as the contralto member of the choir for children and later, a few more years later, she performed in the adults ' choir. Sullivan was not exposed to secular music. The singer recalls she was eleven when someone was requesting her to sing for solos in church. But, she wasn't enough yet to be ready. Then, McDonald's held a contest that was open to children living in cities. I was selected to perform "Accept the Grace of God" in it's Showtime At the Apollo. And the people were very enthusiastic. In the year 13 she sang along with Stevie Wonder for his grandson's birthday. Sullivan signed her first contract with Jive Records when she was fifteen. When she was 15 she signed with Jive Records. The label recorded an entire album there, but it wasn't released. Sullivan was then dropped by the label. She maintained a working relationship with Missy Elliott who wrote and recorded many of the tracks for her debut project, including the buzz single "Backstabbers" which was produced by Timbaland and composed by Elliott.