her signature voice not only set her apart from her peers in the music industry but made her one
of those artists that you could automatically identify the moment she opened her mouth it
took her a long time to get her career off the ground but when she finally did she was off and
running however just as quickly as she shot to the top of the charts she came crashing back down
consequently the combination of dealing with a failing career and numerous personal issues sent
her to the lowest place she'd ever been in her life american r b soul singer songwriter musician
record producer and actress natalie renee mcintyre better known by her stage name macy gray was born
in canton ohio her mother and father split up right after she was born even though she did
see her birth father macy would be raised by her mother and stepfather who she was much closer to
and call dad she was late developing and got singled out at school because of her voice
years later macy would confirm that she didn't sing as a kid because she didn't even talk every
time she would speak she would be ridiculed so she just stopped macy also took a while to decide on
what she wanted to do for a living one day she wanted to be a firefighter the next a writer
and the next a choreographer her stage name came from the name of one of her hometown neighbors
he would come over to the house and shoot pool with her stepfather even though macy was extremely
shy the man would interact with her and tell her she would be something special one day macy
attended more than one high school including a predominantly white boarding school after winning
a scholarship the experience wouldn't turn out to be a pleasant one as she was subjugated to further
taunting because of her race and ultimately being asked to leave the school due to what they claimed
was poor grades macy though believed it had more to do with something unfavorable she said about
one of the deans while she was there macy was able to explore different kinds of music like rock and
roll and pog in canton macy was raised on a steady diet of seoul r b and early hip hop eventually she
would graduate from canton south high school in 1985. macy won a college scholarship to the united
states naval academy but turned the offer down to enroll at the university of southern california
to study film it was also at this time that macy finally began to embrace her voice and
enjoy singing since she had begun taking piano lessons at the age of seven she felt naturally
connected to other musicians at school she would sing with a bunch of her musician friends
start forming bands and get into songwriting then a friend asked her to be a singer in his jazz band
and she decided to do it just for fun macy would end up leaving usc in 1989 just a few credits
short of a degree and began singing in underground clubs in la while continuing to try her hand at
writing screenplays she would spend the early 90s performing and sending out demo tapes
hoping to land a record deal although impressed with macy's sound most labels were unwilling to
take a risk on an artist who didn't fit neatly into a marketable package finally in 1994
macy did receive an offer from atlantic records she began recording her debut album but was then
dropped from the label upon the departure of the anr executive who had originally signed her macy
retreated to her parents home in ohio believing that her career was over soon after she married
tracy hines a mortgage broker they had three children but divorced after about two years
also at this time macy decided to return to music after signing a development deal
with a los angeles-based music publisher they recorded a new demo tape under a pseudonym of
course to guard against any industry bias and began shopping her around to record
labels in 1998 she landed a deal with epic records released in the summer of 1999 macy's debut album
on how life is became a worldwide smash the first singles stalled on the charts but the
follow-up called i try made the album a success and became one of the biggest singles of the year
the album would eventually go triple platinum in the us and the uk in 2001 macy won the grammy
award for best female pop vocal performance for i try and was also nominated for record of the year
and song of the year many years later in 2014 when macy sat down with oprah winfrey for an episode of
where are they now she would speak about the kind of impact the whirlwind of fame had on her i had
a lot of money then and i never had money before and you have people telling you how great you are
and screaming out your name i was a massive [ __ ] i probably made a lot of people upset
drugs also came into play in macy's life my drug use started as a result of being on tour
my crew was from england all they did was smoke hash all day and they knew where to
get the good ecstasy so you start playing with stuff and then suddenly it's like a crutch her
late night partying also began taking its toll and spilling over into other aspects of her life
namely press interviews during those moments macy often wore sunglasses and didn't respond to every
question she was asked reporters attributed this behavior to her eccentric public persona
but she says there was something much different going on beneath the surface
she admitted that the sunglasses helped mask the fact that in many cases she had fallen asleep
macy also revealed in the interview that her turning point as superficial as it may sound
came down to vanity she looked in the mirror one day and didn't like what she saw
she said the bags under her eyes and the poor quality of her skin were what really motivated
her to clean up her life in august 2001 macy made headlines when she was booed at the pro football
hall of fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the national anthem the next month her
second album the id was released it only achieved one-sixth of her debut sales it did though fare
better in the uk where it reached number one on the albums chart poor timing no doubt didn't
help the project arrived in stores just one week after the september 11th terrorist attacks and the
upbeat mood of the tracks was completely out of sync with the somber times just before its release
macy did something very unusual she donned a dress to the mtv video music awards bearing the slogan
my new album drops september 18 2001 on the front and buy it on the back in a strategic position
a lot of people didn't care for it but today the dress sits in the rock and roll hall of
fame in cleveland in 2003 macy released her third studio album the trouble with being myself the
lead single when i see you became a radio hit in the us and a top 40 hit in the uk although
the album was not as well received by fans the following year in an interview with cleveland.com
macy pointed a finger at her record label for not promoting her last two releases as heavily
as her first a greatest hits collection and a live album were subsequently released in 2004
and 2005 respectively macy then ventured into some other business opportunities opening the
macy gray music academy in los angeles to help exceptional students make it big in the industry
as well as starting her own clothing line focused on glamour wear for working women
while accommodating larger and taller women such as herself as she stands at a statuesque six feet
macy began 2007 in a less than stellar way by being kicked off stage at a concert in barbados
for using profanity which was part of her show she did admit that her manager had told
her about the law prohibiting that type of behavior but she didn't take him seriously
she gave a public apology that night to avoid arrest during this period news began to circulate
that macy was bipolar in interviews she would speak candidly about living with the disorder
and she also didn't shy away from acknowledging how much mental health is neglected globally
and emphasized the importance of raising awareness in march she released her next album big it's been
considered a comeback album of sorts since it came after a four year hiatus the album was critically
acclaimed and seen by some as her best work unfortunately it was only moderately successful
in the us by the next year macy decided it was time to debut her alter ego called nemesis
jackson she released a single under the name but the effort didn't take and quietly faded away
macy's fifth album the sellout dropped in june 2010. even though both singles released from the
album became top 10 hits on the us billboard hot dance club songs chart it received generally mixed
reviews from most critics also that year macy did an interview with the guardian and touched on the
prejudice she's faced in the music industry if you're black and you don't do r b or hip
hop then you're going to have a very long haul there's only one lenny kravitz one tracy chapman
the last label i was on only sent my records out to urban radio stations even though i was
more of a pop artist two years later macy would release two albums within the span of seven months
covered in march as the title suggests is an album featuring covers of previously released tracks
by well-known rock pop rap and indie artists then in october for the 40th anniversary of the 1972
stevie wonder album talking book macy covered the entire record and released her version as a
tribute macy's next project the way was released in october 2014. it coincided nicely with the
airing of her oprah where are they now episode that followed a couple of weeks later even though
macy's continued to release her work on a fairly consistent basis over a long period of time she
wasn't able to keep up the momentum of her early success she touched on y in the interview saying
i had all that success really early and i don't think i had a plan to make it last i just kind
of took it for granted and assumed that it would be like that for the rest of my life
i pissed a lot of people off and i think i stopped working as hard as i used to 2016 stripped and
2018's ruby mark macy's 9th and 10th studio album efforts respectively over the years macy has also
enjoyed dabbling in the acting world she's had small roles on several tv shows as well as movies
including training day shadow boxer and the paper boy she was also a contestant on the ninth season
of dancing with the stars in 2009 2021 was a year filled with a lot of great accomplishments
and a return to the music scene for macy she spent the better part of it gearing up to release her
first project as an independent artist she's not going on the journey alone though she'll
be accompanied by three other artists a bassist a drummer and a keyboardist in a collective called
macy gray and the california jet club so far the bands released several singles planned
to drop their album titled the reset very soon and already have a 2022 uk and european summer
tour scheduled to begin in may thanks for watching please like share and comment also don't forget to
subscribe and turn on your notifications so you won't miss any future videos see you next time