What Happened to Mya?

 

Brandy, Monica, Aaliyah and Mya. These were the leading ladies of the Y2K era and while I already cover two of these, it’s time we do another. Recently Mya has been making news about her lifestyle and her promoting self-love but how did we get there. Today we are going to go through her journey and career, so without further ado.

What Happened to Mya (Force flings, Sabotaged, Finding Self-Love)


Mya Marie Harrison was born on October 10, 1979 in Washington, DC. Her father was a singer and her mother was an accountant. Growing up for Mya wasn’t easy. Throughout her childhood, having a black father and white mother was still frowned upon, thus dealt with bullying. But as an escape, Mya got involved in tap dancing, violin lessons and ballet in her youth. At the age of ten, she joined a dancing troupe called TWA (Tappers with Attitudes). So, it’s best said that she became a dance protégé. As she got older, her father discovered that she could sing. Realizing that there’s much more in the music industry than the dancing, Mya recorded a demo tape where her father started to ship them to local clubs. At one of those clubs was Haqq Islam, the president of University Music. He liked what he heard and he invited her to his house where she sang two En Vogue songs. Haqq was hooked and signed the sixteen-year-old to his roster. Should be noted that she graduated high school early and started college at the University of Maryland, but she dropped out to focus on her new music career. And thanks to some connections, Mya got distribution through Interscope.

For her debut, her label gathered a ton of big names to work on her album. Names include Missy Elliott, Babyface, Diane Warren, & members of Dru Hill were a few that contributed on this project. They wanted Mya to be connected with the black women of the early Y2K era which included Brandy, Monica, Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child & 702. In April 1998, her self-titled debut album was released. Her debut single was “It’s All About Me” and it featured Dru Hill lead singer Sisqo. The song reached #2 on the R&B Charts and crossed over to pop going #6 on the Hot 100. Her next single was “Movin On” featuring No Limit rapper Silkk the Shocker. That song reached #4 on the R&B charts. Mya would return the favor when she featured on Silkk’s song “Somebody Like Me” shortly after, and the two had some form of a relationship. Finding tea on this kinship was scarce and they broke up sometime in the early millennium. As for her debut it went platinum. Thanks to her unique baby vocals, she was able to lock down more collaborations for herself. Second, she teamed up with Blackstreet and Mase on the song “Take Me There” for the Rugrats soundtrack. Then she worked with Fugees member Pras & ODB on the song “Ghetto Superstar”. Both songs reached the top 20, with the latter giving her first Grammy nomination. She also made her film debut on In to Deep, albeit it was a minor role.

As Mya was set to leadoff her follow up album, she drop it’s leadoff single “Best of Me” featuring rapper Jadakiss. But the song was not moving numbers the way it should so someone thought it would be a bright idea to redo the entire song and feature rapper/capitalist Jay-Z. But they had some issues making the track happen. Jay did not like the vibe Mya was giving him so he left. He also said Mya was acting very entitled and several members of the Trackmaster have confirmed this story. Fortunately, Jay-Z returned to the studio to finish the track on much easier and softer terms. As for the song itself, it never was a charting success but thanks to the video, urban airplay & her jersey dress, the record was deemed a cult classic.

In April 2000, Mya dropped her second album The Fear of Flying. But by this time, many speculated that she was entering a sophomore slump, especially after Best of Me Part 1 wasn’t a runaway success. That all changed when she dropped the single “Case of the Ex”. That song reached #2 on the Hot 100, being held out by her fellow Y2K rival Destiny’s Child “Independent Woman Part I”. But the song did reach #1 in Australia. The song wound up being the album’s saving grace as Fear of Flying went Platinum. She saw more opportunities in the Hollywood relm. First she did the song Where The Dream Takes You, a song written by Diane Warren and that song appeared on the Atlantis: Lost Empire soundtrack. Then she teamed up with Christina Aguilera, Pink, Lil Kim on the Missy Elliott produced cover of “Lady Marmalade”, originally sung by Labelle. That song became the song of the summer for 2001 going #1 in various countries. It won Video of the Year at the 2001 VMA & it gave Mya her only Grammy win for Best Pop Collaboration. She also got the chance to pay tribute on MJ 30th Anniversary Special on the opening number.

In July 2003, Mya released her third album Moodring. The album was most known for the song “My Love is Like Wo”, a song that showcase a sexual side to Mya. However, Mya initially opposed the song because of its sexual nature. In fact, it took her almost two years to decide if she wanted to record the song. She had this to say, “Back then, I wasn’t so confident in saying, ‘My ass is like wo,’ I was coming out of doing a program with young girls that talked about self-esteem and body image.” She continues, “I realized that I really couldn’t worry about what people think of me. I’m at that point in my life now where I can say, ‘My ass is like wo.’ I wasn’t even considering the song to be on the album at that time, but I later fought for it to be the single.” My Love is Like Wo went to #13 on the Hot 100. However other songs failed to reach the same success, thus Moodring only went Gold.

In 2005, Mya started her own non-profit organization called The Mya Arts & Tech Foundation. It’s goal is to help underprivilege youth gain access through the arts and technology. But her time with Interscope came to an end siting creative differences with her music. So she signed with Universal Motown. Mya quicky recorded her fourth album and it was set for release in 2007. Then things get weird. Universal started to make push backs towards the album release as the label was making budget cuts. She tried to release two singles “Lock U Down” & “Ridin” but both weren’t successful. Then, the album leaked in Japan and was made a digital release. Motown never pushed physical sales because they feared bootleggers would affect the record sales. After this “sabotage” she left Universal Motown and go independent.


Around this time, she got into a beef with 50 Cent. The beef started when she appeared on The Game’s music video “Dream”. 50 and the Game fell out shortly after 2006 and 50 decide to take a jab at The Game and Mya caught a stray. In one of his many disses 50 lied about sleeping with Mya, which was a no-no for her. She alongside her father made 50 apologies for the accusation. In 2009, Mya participated in DWTS but despite being favored due to her background in dancing she was runners-up to Donny Osmond. But it was a gutsy showing as the last five weeks she still dance despite having a sprained ankle.

Moving on, now that’s she’s independent she released a series of albums, mixtapes & Eps. The biggest of the bunch was the 2016 album Smooth, an album that gave her a nomination for Best R&B Album at the Grammys. In 2013, she got married to herself. It’s called sologamy and Mya had this to say about her decision in self-love. “It was all about self-care, self-love and getting myself back after a toxic relationship. Last year, I renewed my vows stepping into a new year. It’s not about anything like ‘all men are bad’ or anything like that. It’s really about becoming your best self and making sure that you’re leveling up in all aspects of your life”. Another thing about Mya of finding herself, she adopted a vegan diet and animal lover. In 2022, she became the first celebrity ambassador of World Animal Protection. She also kept busy with acting as she had spot roles here and there. In 2025, she released her most recent single Face to Face. Today Mya still tours, releasing music, & promoting self-love and care. Also does anyone else think Liza Koshy look like her, I can’t be the only one that has that theory.

SOURCES

https://myamya.com/bio/

https://www.famousafricanamericans.org/mya

https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/what-really-happened-between-jay-z-and-mya.html/

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/music-best-fits-myas-mood-70355/

https://rollingout.com/2020/12/30/singer-mya-explains-why-she-married-herself-in-2013/


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