Remember when Brandy was a force in the music industry?
From her quadruple platinum self-titled debut album to the quintuple platinum Never Say
Never, she was on top of the world.
It was good to be Brandy in the '90s, but what has she been up to lately?
When things cooled off for Brandy, she did what many celebs have done to give their careers
a jolt by becoming a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.
She was paired with Maksim Chmerkovskiy in 2010 and quickly established herself as a
favorite by racking up some high marks.
But voters weren't as enamored with her as the judges were and surprisingly sent her
home in the semifinals, ironically after she'd earned her first perfect score.
Brandy took the elimination pretty hard, holding back tears after the announcement.
"I don't know how to feel right now.
It hasn't processed yet for me."
Clearly the show ended up being more than just a paycheck for Brandy, as she later revealed
on The View that it completely changed her life.
As she put it,
Reality TV has made families like the Osbournes and the Kardashians household names, but alas,
it couldn't do the same for the Norwoods.
Brandy & Ray J: A Family Business lasted only two seasons on VH1.
One possible reason the show didn't catch on was that Brandy felt her personal life
lacked the juicy drama typical of other VH1 series like Basketball Wives and Love & Hip-Hop.
As she told Sister 2 Sister Magazine in 2012,
But Brandy hasn't completely turned her back on the genre, as she went on to serve as a
mentor on Majors & Minors and to compete on My Kitchen Rules.
In 2013, she backtracked on her earlier statements, telling PYNK Magazine,
Brandy wasn't offended that many were calling her 2012 album Two Eleven a comeback.
In fact, she agreed.
It was her first album in four years, and she told Reuters,
Critics gave Two Eleven rave reviews, with Billboard calling it "her most focused album"
since Never Say Never.
Fans, however, weren't as enthusiastic, as the album peaked at just number 3 on the Billboard
200 and sold fewer first week copies than 2008's Human.
Brandy was disappointed, but she kept things in perspective.
"Am I happy with the sales of Two Eleven?
Um, honestly, no.
Would I have loved for it to reach more people?
Absolutely, because, I say this humbly, the work is just so great."
Depression doesn't discriminate.
The wealthy and famous struggle with mental illness, just like so many others.
Brandy, for one, has been publicly open about her bouts with depression.
In an interview with NewYork.com in 2015, she said that career disappointments had her
feeling down.
And in 2016, she revealed on The Dr. Oz Show that she was in a dark place for about a year
and a half, in part due to her failed engagement.
She stopped being active and praying and had lost her appetite.
"I was exhausted from feeling exhausted."
Some say you never truly overcome depression, but you can learn to live with it.
And it appears that Brandy has done just that.
She said the key was to "do the work."
"I went to the gym, and I started meditating and writing down my thoughts every morning.
And then slowly but surely my life started to change."
Brandy's music career isn't what it once was, but she's remained relevant thanks in large
part to a steady acting career.
Her credits include recurring roles on such shows as The Game and Star.
2016 saw the debut of BET's Zoe Ever After, which was Brandy's first leading TV role since
Moesha was canceled after six seasons in 2001.
Regarding Zoe, she told Entertainment Tonight,
Zoe Ever After followed a single mother starting all over again after a divorce.
It only lasted eight episodes, but it brought back some of those oh-so-special feelings
that Brandy had for Moesha.
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