Lifestyle
Brandy seizes the ‘divine’ opportunity to tell her story with ‘Phases’ memoir
In her long-awaited memoir, Phases, entertainment icon Brandy is opening up about her storied journey from singing in church in rural Mississippi to building a decades-long career in Hollywood as a music artist, songwriter, producer and actress.
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It was in the late summer of 1993 when Brandy first captured viewers nationwide with the premiere season of the sitcom Thea. Playing the vibrant and savvy Danesha Turrell, Brandy stepped into a role that, though short-lived, would become the prelude to her now decades-long entertainment career.
In an interview with Morning Edition ahead of the release of her new memoir, Phases, Brandy recounted that these early achievements affirmed the childhood dreams she held so close growing up in McComb, Mississippi, and Carson, California. While working to reach her visions for herself, Brandy honed her singing and acting skills with the support of her singer and musican father, William “Willie” Norwood Sr., her mother and eventual manager, Sonja Norwood, and her younger brother, Ray J, whose full name is William Norwood Jr.
“All I wanted to do was be a singer, touch people with my voice and meet Whitney Houston. That was my dream. But God had other plans for me. I was able to expand into acting and all sorts of things that I never saw myself doing,” Brandy told NPR’s A Martinez.
Brandy at the ninth annual Soul Train Music Awards in 1995, where she won the award for R&B new artist following the release of her self-titled debut album, which went platinum and featured her chart-topping singles “I Wanna Be Down” and “Baby.”
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Brandy’s debut acting role came the same year that she secured her first record deal — with her signing to Atlantic Records. Just one year later in 1994, several months after Thea filmed its final episode, Brandy dropped her self-titled debut album. The platinum-selling album stormed the charts, producing two No. 1 singles on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, three top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and securing Brandy’s title as an artist to watch.
“I just remember being fearless at 14, excited for everything, ready for all of the things that I saw myself doing. I just was so full of spirit,” said Brandy, whose full name is Brandy Norwood, though she’s gone by the mononym Brandy throughout her career.
From a rising star to a pop culture force
Less than a year after releasing her first album, Brandy had already accomplished one of her most coveted goals — meeting her idol Whitney Houston. The pair crossed paths at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in 1995, where Brandy was performing and Houston was hosting the show. Brandy said that encounter was the beginning of a “beautiful friendship” between her and Houston.
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Brandy and Houston soon worked together again when Houston asked Brandy to be on the soundtrack for Houston’s 1995 film Waiting to Exhale, a music project that Houston curated to feature a roster of all-women music artists and housed Brandy’s No. 1 single “Sittin’ Up in My Room.”
The following year, Brandy took on a new role on the UPN series Moesha, where she starred as the show’s title character, Moesha Mitchell. The show aired for six seasons until its end in 2001, a series run Brandy said she “couldn’t predict” would have lasted so long.
Brandy celebrates the 100th episode of Moesha with her castmates William Allen Young, Yvette Wilson, Shar Jackson, Marcus T. Paulk, Lamont Bentley, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Brandy’s real-life brother, Ray J.
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“It was nothing like Moesha on television. It wasn’t a young Black girl with braids on television, just tackling so many topics about life and what teenagers go through. It was different. It was family oriented. It just seemed really grounded,” Brandy said.
“I loved that it was set in Leimert Park. It was just the culture there. It was just so beautiful,” Brandy added, referencing the real-life historic Black neighborhood in Los Angeles where Moesha and her family lived on the show. “I was so happy that we tapped into it. It was such a fun time.”
Brandy and her real-life brother, Ray J, both appeared in the the television series Moesha. Brandy played the series’ title charachter, Moesha Mitchell. While Ray J memorably played several charachters on the show, with his best-known rolebeing Dorian Long.
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But it was in 1997 that Brandy played one of her most treasured roles — Cinderella in the Disney television film adaption of the musical Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Brandy was cast in the lead role by her own fairy godmother Houston — with Brandy making history as the first Black actress to play a Disney princess on screen.
While working on the film, Brandy says that Whitney centered her with “encouraging energy” and urged Brandy to be herself.
“She just made me feel safe to be myself and I just wanted to impress her,” Brandy said. “Anything I could think of to impress her, I would do it … to make her laugh, to do a run or something to just make her smile. Just because I loved her so much. And I still love her.”
Brandy and Monica arrive at the 41st annual Grammy Awards in February 1999 in Los Angeles, California. That night they won the Grammy Award for best pop duo/group peformance for their chart-topping single “The Boy Is Mine.”
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Dan Callister
On the glass heels of the Cinderella film’s international success, Brandy released her 1998 sophomore album Never Say Never. The album included the track “The Boy Is Mine,” her record-breaking duet with her fellow teen sensation Monica. Brandy then closed out the decade with a Grammy win for “The Boy Is Mine,” her becoming the first Black singer to land a CoverGirl contract, Mattel’s release of a Brandy Barbie doll, and her recognition as a beauty and style muse — who’d become known for her trademark braided hairstyles and her fashion on and off the screen.
Balancing the dream
The bustle following Brandy’s debut album in 1994 had surged to a thundering confirmation by the end of the 1990s, with the multiphenate amassing a pop culture significance unrivaled by most of her teen-star contemporaries. But Brandy says navigating her preteen and teenage years as a public figure came with a crushing cost — the mounting expectations of perfection she often felt placed upon her professional and personal life.
Brandy performs during the 50th annual Primetime Emmy Awards on September 13, 1998.
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“You’re a teenager. That’s when you’re making mistakes, and falling down and trying to get back up — all of these things. And I wasn’t able to do that because I was an example. I was put in a position to be like a role model,” Brandy said.
“The pressures of staying on point and not making mistakes — it was hard to live up to for a long period of time,” Brandy continued. “Because life kicks in. And you do start to learn about yourself. And you do start to make mistakes. And you learn from those mistakes. But when you’re a child star, everything is on blast.”
An expansion of career and honoring of self
Brandy entered the new millennium with artistic fervor, exclaiming her coming of age as a young adult with her 2002 third studio album Full Moon and its acclaimed title track. Her Full Moon era also included the birth of her now 23-year-old daughter Sy’rai Smith, who Brandy says has pulled her own creative inspiration from the beloved project.
“[Sy’rai]’s an artist. She loves music. She can sing her little tail off. So I’m supporting her on her journey, becoming and blossoming into a beautiful artist,” Brandy said, adding that “Full Moon” is Sy’rai’s favorite song out of her mom’s catalog. “Her and her crew, every time that song comes on, they want me to know that they know every lyric. They know every word.”
Brandy visits BET’s 106 & Park and chats with the shows co-host Free in 2002 while promoting her third studio album Full Moon.
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In the decades following Full Moon, Brandy expanded her career through a melding of film, TV, theater and music projects.
As an actress, she’s taken on feature films like The Perfect Match, her lead role in the sitcom Zoe Ever After, her televsion movie with Sy’rai Christmas Everyday and starring on Broadway as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago. She’s also continued to foster her musical evolution through studio albums that have found her exploring a range of sonic spaces — including her critically lauded Afrodisiac in 2004, her pop and R&B fusion Human in 2008, Two Eleven in 2012 and her musing experimental album B7 in 2020, which she co-wrote and co-produced.
Brandy’s daughter, Sy’rai Smith, pictured above on the left, is building her own career as a singer and actress. Sy’rai released her debut single “On My Own” in 2023, has been featured on several songs on her mother’s albums and Sy’rai appeared alongside Brandy in the Lifetime holiday movie Christmas Everyday, which premiered in November 2025.
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Paras Griffin
Despite her exhaustive list of creative pursuits, the past three decades have seen Brandy employ moments of dormancy from the spotlight — with her often going inactive on social media and generally retreating from the public eye between projects. It was during one such break that Brandy says she was able to fully address the emotional complexities of her life as a child star.
“Once I was able to step away from the limelight and really work on myself, and work on my self-worth, and heal, I was able to grow and become an amazing person, and mom and a role model for my daughter in the best way possible,” Brandy said. “So I’m grateful for what I’ve been through because I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.”
A timeless icon reinspired
Now putting shape to her fourth decade in the entertainment industry, Brandy says she’s building on the artistic energy she rediscovered during her record-setting joint tour with Monica last fall — which was named after their hit song “The Boy Is Mine.” The 32-date The Boy Is Mine Tour sold out arenas around the nation and dominated social media feeds with performance clips, photos and behind-the-scenes footage.
Brandy attends her Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony on March 30, 2026, in Hollywood, California.
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“When I was creating [The Boy Is Mine] with Rodney Jerkins and LaShawn Daniels, I was watching a lot of [the Jerry Springer Show]. And I saw this [episode] where the show was called pretty much ‘The Boy Is Mine.’ And I was like we should do a song with another artist like Monica,” Brandy said. “I thought my idea for it was amazing. When I heard the song, I just had this idea of our voices going back and forth, and us going back and forth in the song, and producing it like that and. And nobody could see it but me. And I was right.”
“[‘The Boy Is Mine’] is the biggest song of our careers. It won us a Grammy. It put us back on tour 27 years later in 2025 in front of these amazing fans — and reinspired me and reignited me to do more performing and entertainment now. I’m so inspired because of ‘The Boy Is Mine’ and the tour,” Brandy said.
Brandy performs the national anthem ahead of the NFC Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium on January 30, 2022 in Inglewood, California. Brandy’s white tracksuit paid homage to the white windsuit her idol Whitney Houston wore during her iconic performance of the national anthem at the Super Bowl in 1991.
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As Brandy waxes into a new phase of galvanized creativity and self-discovery, she’s reassured that she won’t be overshadowed by weighty expectations and misconceptions. Instead, this era of her life will be fully illuminated by the personal truths she assuredly proclaims in her long-awaited memoir, which she penned in collaboration with journalist Gerrick Kennedy.
“For so long my story was told for me. So given the opportunity to have a chance to speak myself and tell my own story, I just felt like it was divine,” Brandy said. “I wanted to give my younger self a voice and heal my inner child. Some of the things that I went through was super difficult, and I wanted to speak about that and inspire others.”
“[Gerrick Kennedy] helped me to recall some of the things that I didn’t remember and was able to put together a beautiful, compelling story to help other people feel like they can survive whatever they’re going through,” Brandy added.
Rapper and producer Ye, also known as Kanye West, seen before a 2025 concert in Shanghai.
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Sponsors are exiting a major U.K. music festival and the country’s prime minister has been critical after the influential rapper Ye was announced as the event’s headliner.
The once widely revered musician and fashion impresario, formerly known as Kanye West, has gained notoriety over the years for his antisemitic comments and activities glorifying Nazis, including a 2025 song called “Heil Hitler” and selling swastika T-shirts on his clothing site.
Yet organizers announced last week that West would headline the Wireless Festival in North London for the entirety of its three-night run in July, invoking outrage from politicians and withdrawals from festival sponsors. Those include Diageo, the company that owns popular liquor brands such as Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan.
In a statement emailed to NPR, Diageo confirmed that it will no longer sponsor the 2026 festival “as it stands.”
Pepsi, another company that reportedly pulled sponsorship, did not respond to NPR’s request for comment, nor did the Festival Republic team handling publicity for the shows. However, Pepsi confirmed to The Associated Press and others that it was withdrawing from its lead sponsor role.
The festival, which plays in Finsbury Park, is a major rap and hiphop event in the U.K. that draws tens of thousands of attendees each year.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was among those expressing distaste for the headliner selection. “It is deeply concerning Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism,” he told the newspaper The Sun on Sunday. “Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe.”
Earlier this year, the artist took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal in which he apologized for his antisemitic behavior — not for the first time. Ye has attributed his outbursts to manic episodes due to bipolar disorder. He has not commented publicly on the Wireless Festival controversy.
The musician is attempting to resuscitate his once-storied career. He recently sold out two shows in Los Angeles following the release of his new album Bully, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 charts.
Arsenio Hall speaks onstage during the Emmy Awards on Jan. 15, 2024.
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As a kid in Cleveland, Arsenio Hall remembers watching The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and feeling that something was missing. “I could watch … for weeks at a time maybe never see a minority perform,” he says.
Hall yearned to create something different: “My dream was to one day grow up and show the other side of show business,” he says. “I wanted to do this show that didn’t exist when I was a kid. … I wanted those things that Johnny didn’t do.”
The Arsenio Hall Show, which ran from 1989 until 1994, delivered just that. At its peak, the show was syndicated on nearly 200 stations, running second in the late-night ratings to Hall’s idol, Carson.
Some of the most indelible moments in American culture happened on Hall’s set. In 1991, Magic Johnson chose the show as the first place to speak after announcing his HIV diagnosis. That same year, a 6-year-old Bruno Mars won a week of free groceries after performing his Elvis impression on the show. And Bill Clinton famously played his saxophone on set during the run-up to the 1992 presidential election.
But Hall says he faced criticism on multiple fronts: White audiences thought the show was too Black, while Black audiences accused the show of not being Black enough.
“In America, you’re never gonna be No. 1 if you have this insatiable desire to do Toni Braxton instead of Dolly Parton,” Hall explains. “And by the way, I tried to do both. I would try to mix it up; I would put Dolly Parton on and then have something for the culture after it.”
In 1994, Hall decided to walk away: “I realized I couldn’t go any higher, and I was gonna lose my affiliates when [David] Letterman came into the game. And the CBS affiliates were very important to my strength, my success, and my profits. … I always said, when I end it, I want to go out on the top,” he says.
Hall’s new memoir is Arsenio.
Interview highlights
Arsenio Hall and executive producer Marla Kell Brown pose during the show’s staff PJ party.
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Simon & Schuster
On why his stage had couches instead of the desk that other late-night shows used
Marla Kell Brown, my partner in crime, the executive producer, partner of the show … she had seen me do stand-up, and she talked about how I moved, and how free I was. She wanted me to be able to get up, to touch a guest, to decide to sit next to a guest. She felt — and she was right — the desk was this shield. This desk was something I was hiding behind. This desk was protective. And she wanted to take it away from me. When I took over for Joan Rivers, they let me host The Joan Rivers Show when she quit. And she had a desk. So at Fox, I’m sitting behind the Joan Rivers’ desk, and Marla said, “Why don’t you try it without the desk? I think you’ll like it. I would love to see you without that desk.” And we tried it. I had to admit she’s right, and the rest is history. I have to listen to Marla more often. …
It worked really well. When I watched it the first time, I knew it. To be able to lean into a guest and not have something between you. I remember doing an interview with Rosie Perez … [and] I held her hand during the interview because she was nervous. I remember an interview where Diana Ross kissed me. You can’t kiss me with the desk in between us. It created a different visual of a show and it became a thing.
On Magic Johnson‘s 1991 appearance, in which he talked about his HIV diagnosis
I call him Earv, Magic Johnson. He was a friend. And he called me because I had been worried about him. … And one of the things I remember most is he was afraid of losing friends, losing the love of friends and family. I remember the sentence, “I want people to still give me my hugs,” because Magic is a warm and fuzzy guy, and he’s that guy. I hugged him to show him I love him and I care.
I had heard a comic do an AIDS joke. And it was a very homophobic type joke. … We were so ignorant. We didn’t even know the rules of how you get it. And there were basketball players who didn’t want to play with Magic. So I think God gave me that hug or the inspiration to do that, to show people we don’t have to be afraid. …
I asked Earvin to go on Larry King or do Mike Wallace or something. I was like, “No, man, I can’t do that interview. You know me, I’m a crier. … You need a serious platform, dude. You need a journalist. I’m a comedian and infotainment late night guy.” And he says, “No I need you. I need to come there. I need come where I’m comfortable, because I’ve got to talk to the nation. And I’ve gotta give them my point of view. And I want to do it where I am comfortable.” So the point guard ran the play, and I just followed. And like he did in basketball, he makes everybody better.
On his angry reaction to being heckled by activists from Queer Nation in 1990
I think you become more angry and you become stronger when you realize you are right, because a huge part of my staff was gay, many of my guests were gay, but it was at a time when you didn’t always know it. So the gay people on my show couldn’t even come to my defense. Ellen [DeGeneres] couldn’t come and say, “Oh, wait a minute, you guys don’t know.” … And Rosie [O’Donnell] was on the show a lot and a lot of people that may be still in the closet, so I won’t mention their names, but, it wasn’t my job to say, “Ladies and gentlemen, balladeer and homosexual, put your hands together …” It wasn’t my job to introduce a singer that way.
I think part of my anger was at that point [was] I’m being told by the Black community that it ain’t Black enough. I’m being told by the Paramount executives that it ain’t white enough. And now the gay community is gonna attack me during the show? You’re gonna take money out of my wallet and food off my family’s plate? In the middle of my job here, when you don’t know what you’re talking about? You’re gonna blame me for something that is absolutely not true? I think I was sick of being criticized by everyone because everyone wanted it to be something else. It’s hard being the first Black anything in late night.
On the success of his show
I changed the culture in a way that I exposed America to some things they might not have seen if I didn’t come along then. If I came along now, it would be irrelevant. Everybody would now be gathering to watch Hammer, or this little Bruno Mars, or the Magic Johnson announcement. Timing is also very important. Talent is important. Hard work is important. But timing — if I came along 10 years before that, or if I came a long 10 years from now, it wouldn’t work. And that’s what’s really cool about life. Sometimes it’s the timing that matters.
Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez Wisler produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Clare Lombardo adapted it for the web.
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