Ciara was an only child, and she grew up on U. S. Army bases all over the world, including Nevada, New York, California, Arizona, and Germany. Following, Ciara settled in Atlanta in her early teenage years. During this time in Atlanta, Ciara watched the girl group Destiny’s Child on television. As a result, she decided that music was what she wanted to pursue. In an interview with The Spokesman-Review, Ciara expresses, “I saw Destiny’s Child perform, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.” From a young Ciara has always been into the musical arts whether it had been singing, dancing, or modeling. Furthermore, growing up, Ciara wrote stories and poems, which helped her with her song-writing skills during her early music career when she joined a girl group called Hearsay with her two close friends. Although the group broke up, Ciara wrote several songs during this time since she was in Atlanta, which was a center of urban music talent.

Following these events, while she was still in high school, she got a publishing deal and met Atlanta producer Jazze Pha, who helped her get a record deal at LaFace Records in 2003. In 2004, songwriter/producer Sean Garrett helped Ciara begin recording demos. He was the co-writer of popular contemporary-artist Usher‘s  hit “Yeah!,” which stood out to Ciara. During this year, they worked up a demo for a song called “Goodies.” Garret brought forth this demo to popular rapper and producer Lil Jon. When Lil Jon heard the demo, he saw potential and agreed to produce the song. Ciara’s debut single,”Goodies,” was released in June 2004 and rose quickly to the top of the charts around the world. This song put Ciara’s name on the map. As a result, her debut album was  titled Goodies and was released in September of 2004. The album went multi-platinum and  debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart. Following, Ciara made singles featuring famous artists. The single “1, 2 Step” featuring Missy Elliott, which was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the Grammys,  and “Oh” featuring Ludacris both broke the Top Five in the U.S. in 2005. At the end of 2005, Missy Elliott featured Ciara on her song “Lose Control,” which was nominated for Best Rap Song and took the award for Best Short Form Music Video. 

View the music videos of the songs mentioned above down below.