to Sing! (2012), That’s My Boy (2012), and The Game (2013). In March 2022, it was announced that Ciara had joined the cast of the 2023 remake of The Color Purple as Nettie. Ciara has received multiple accolades, including a Grammy Award, two BET Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, seven Soul Train Awards, and thirteen Ascap Music Awards. As of 2019, Ciara's worldwide sales total over 45 million. Early life Ciara Princess Harris was born in Fort Hood, Texas, on October 25, 1985, the only child of Jackie and Carlton Clay Harris. An army brat, she grew up in Georgia, New York, Utah, California, Arizona, and Nevada. She was named after the Revlon fragrance Ciara which was introduced in 1973. During her teens, Ciara and her family settled in Riverdale, Georgia. In her mid-teens, Ciara formed the all-girl group Hearsay with two of her friends. The group recorded demos, but as time went on, they began to have differences and eventually parted ways. Despite this setback, Ciara signed a publishing deal as a songwriter. Her first writing credit was on Blu Cantrell's debut album, So Blu, for the song "10,000 Times". She also wrote the song "Got Me Waiting" for R&B singer Fantasia Barrino's debut album, Free Yourself. It was when she was writing songs that she met music producer Jazze Pha, whom she called her "music soulmate". In 2002, the two recorded four demos: "1, 2 Step", "Thug Style", "Pick Up the Phone", and "Lookin' at You", which all appeared on her debut album that was released two years later. "1, 2 Step" was the second single released from the album and it was a hit. Career 2003–2005: Goodies After graduating from Riverdale High School in Riverdale, Georgia in 2003, she was signed by LaFace Records executive, L.A. Reid, whom she was introduced to by Jazze Pha. She began production on her debut album later that year. In early 2004, she wrote a demo with record producer, Sean Garrett, which came to the attention of Lil Jon and became her debut single "Goodies". Lil Jon stated later that he knew it would be big seeing how it sounded similar to Usher's international hit, "Yeah!". Ciara released her debut album Goodies on September 28, 2004. The album debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 125,000 copies in its initial week and topped the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums