Jazmine Sullivan

Jazmine, a Philadelphia native was raised and born there. Her mother Pam has been a previous back-up singer with Philadelphia International Records. Her father gave her a position as curator for the Historic Strawberry Mansion. She and her family then moved into the historic mansion. In 2005 she graduated from Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts with a vocal music major. Sullivan was first singing in the kids' choir as a contralto and then she joined the adult choir just a few years after that. His exposure to secular music was initially minimal "I performed solos at the church and was approached by someone to be a part of a gospel label before I was 11, but I was not prepared to sign that contract," she recalls. "Then McDonald's offered a competition for kids from cities. It gave me the chance to sing Accept The Grace God Gives On Showtime Apollo. The audience was extremely accommodating." Stevie Wonder sang her part on his birthday, 13 years old. Sullivan aged 15 was signed for the first time to Jive Records. There, she recorded an entire album. But the album wasn't released. Sullivan was later dismissed from the record label. Missy Elliott was her producer for a few tracks that were on their debut album. The most notable of these was "Backstabbers" was a viral track written by Timbaland which was composed by Elliott.