Brandy Wants to Get Real About Mental Health

With the release of her new album, the R&B star Brandy takes on a taboo topic

Nadja Sayej
ZORA
Published in
6 min readAug 18, 2020

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A closeup portrait photo of Brandy.
Brandy. Photo: Derek Blanks

Hands down, Brandy was the voice of R&B in the 1990s. In a time when Aaliyah and Mary J. Blige dominated the charts, Brandy broke onto the scene with her self-titled debut in 1994 when she was just 15 years old. With soulful, good-girl tracks like “I Wanna Be Down” andBaby,” she was smart, on point, and clearly ahead of her years. She gained the nickname of the “Vocal Bible” for her wide, enviable vocal range. Whitney Houston told Babyface that Brandy would be the next big thing.

Brandy went on to win a Grammy and multiple #1 spots on the charts. She starred in the sitcom Moesha, which saw six seasons from 1997 to 2001, and made history with a record-breaking duet with Monica for The Boy Is Mine. She was the first black woman to play Cinderella in the 1997 Disney film, where Houston was her fairy godmother, and she was the first Black artist to be the face of CoverGirl. Remember the Brandy Barbie doll, too?

But what about allowing time for Brandy to grow up? She took a long hiatus after Houston’s passing in 2012, and after eight years, Brandy is back with her new album, B7. As her seventh album, it centers on mental illness, with songs like “Borderline” and “Bye BiPolar.” “When you’re…

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