It’s 2002. Do you know where your multi-platinum-selling teen music star is?

If her name is Brandy, you might think you know, but you might be wrong. She’s not gracing your prime-time anymore as Moesha and she’s not at your multiplex
starring in a new summer blockbuster. After a three-year break from the glare of spotlights, a three-year period of growth, of self-evolution and re-examination, Brandy is about to step back onto the world stage in a major way this time, however, with a newfound sense of purpose and desire to buttress her audio attack on the masses.

On the eve of the release of FULL MOON, her third Atlantic CD - a sure-to-be-mega-selling-platinum disc - Brandy is back with her most heartfelt and mature work to date. She also has a new outlook on life,
fortified with a spiritual centeredness that only makes her star shine brighter

Though still in her teens, singer Brandy was among the biggest and brightest new stars to emerge during the 1990s — a multimedia sensation, she was a success not only on the pop and R&B charts, but also on television. Born in McComb, Missouri in 1979, Brandy Norwood was raised in California, first attracting attention singing with area youth groups. From there she moved on to a series of television award shows and specials, and later co-starred in the short-lived ABC sitcom Thea. Brandy’s self-titled debut LP appeared in 1994, launching a series of hits, among them “I Wanna Be Down,” “Baby” and “Brokenhearted”; by now a major star, she returned a year later with the blockbuster “Sittin’ Up in My Room,” a cut from the soundtrack to the film Waiting to Exhale. “Missing You,” from the soundtrack to 1996’s Set It Off, was also a hit, but instead of immediately releasing a follow-up LP, Brandy returned to acting, starring in the acclaimed UPN sitcom Moesha and also appearing in the title role of the 1997 Disney telefilm Cinderella, one of the biggest success stories of the
television season. Her long-awaited sophomore album, NEVER SAY NEVER, was finally issued in mid-1998

Now we bring you Brandy 3.0, you might say, the newly music-focused adult Brandy, sleek and streamlined and ready to take on all comers with a dazzling new CD. “FULL MOON” is both a declaration of independence and a full-circle revelation of a woman who once emerged a full-fledged star but is now ready to be recognized as a spiritually and emotionally developed woman.

It’s been three years of real growth since the release of Brandy’s “NEVER SAY NEVER,” and Brandy is ready to return to the spotlight, albeit, with a new focus and drive. Says the superstar, “In the past three years, I’ve focused on getting

to know who I am inside. I took a break to reflect on myself as a person and I’ve grown a lot. There was a side of me that I’ve known and people close to me have known, which was different from the public image of who I was.”

In the years between her last record and this new release, it was important for Brandy to reconcile those sides of her. “A part of yourself is taken from you in the public eye,” she says. “And that was one of my problems. I didn’t know who I was because so many
people had this idea and image of me that
wasn’t necessarily who I was. But I’ve
experienced some things and I’ve learned some lessons, good and bad. I’m a woman now.”

Working with such notable
knob-turners as Warren Campbell (of Mary Mary and Dru Hill fame), KeithCrouch (who worked on Brandy’s debut record), Mike City (“It took him a while to understand my crazy ideas, but he is incredible. He produced me so well.”), and longtime Brandy collaborator Rodney Jerkins, Brandy found herself stretching farther than she had on any previous recording. “Me and Rodney? That’s just a match made in heaven,” she enthuses. “We’ve both changed a lot over the years. And we bumped heads a lot cause Rodney thinks he knows everything and I think I know
everything, too. But he is one of my best friends and we have that chemistry. Besides, I think when people have strong opinions the best work comes out of that.”

Just listen to the single “What About Us?” and you can hear that chemistry dripping all over the track. This is forward-looking Brandy, raw and stylish and edgy, reaching for that new sound which is a hallmark of her chart-topping career. Says Brandy, “It took a while to get that sound we wanted because I didn’t want that sound that’s already saturated the industry. It’s important to me to be a
trendsetter and change the game. It was a great feeling to see Rodney soar like that.”

The entire album soars - from the sonic razzle dazzle of Jerkins’ “It’s Not Worth It” (which defies copycats to come up with something as new and funky) and “I Thought” to the sensuous, multi-tracked Brandy balladry that makes Warren Campbell’s “He Is”
destined to be a quiet-storm classic; from the title track’s throbbing melodicism to the lilting prettiness of “When You Touch Me” - mostly because Brandy wanted it that way. “These songs were selected based on my own
personal experiences,” she says, “and those of friends, relatives and surroundings.”

As a result, “FULL MOON” is Brandy’s most personal album to date, a
statement record from a young diva who is always on the rise, never content to rest on her past successes, even though, she reveals, she wasn’t always sure of her self when it came to recording music.

She’s 23 years old now, staking her claim on the musical world with a mature
mixture of creativity, grace and fortitude. “I’m just really thankful now,” says Brandy. “I
needed to find out who I was and what I
wanted because I had a feeling that this album could be my biggest ever and I needed to be ready mentally and spiritually for what could happen with it.”