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Cassie Ventura

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Cassie Ventura

Cassandra Ventura (born August 26 1986), professionally known as Cassie, is an American pop singer and former fashion model. She is best known for her hit 2006 single "Me & U".

Biography

Ventura was born in New London, Connecticut.Her father is Filipino and mother is Mexican-American, West Indian and African-American.She attended the preparatory Williams School on the Connecticut College campus in New London, graduating in 2004. She is best known for her single "Me & U", which is ascending the Billboard charts.

Ventura became a recording artist unexpectedly. Shortly after being introduced to music producer, Ryan Leslie, her mother requested that she record a song for her as a birthday gift. Ventura approached Leslie about producing the song, and he put together a duet for them called "Kiss Me". As it turned out, Ventura's mother wasn't the only one who loved the song. Leslie played "Kiss Me" for Tommy Mottola, former chairman of Sony, and the record mogul behind the careers of Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, and most notably Mariah Carey. He offered Ventura a management deal, and weeks later she struck a deal with Leslie to produce her debut album. She signed with Diddy's record label Bad Boy Recordings, after he heard the track "Me & U" played in a club.

Before the launch of her music career, Ventura was a fashion model for the Wilhelmina modelling agency, where she worked with Adidas, Complex magazine and Abercrombie & Fitch campaigns, among others. As early in her modeling career as 2002 she modeled for local department stores, the Delia's fashion catalogue and the popular magazine Seventeen.


Controversy

In keeping with the internet popularity that Cassie has enjoyed, an unreleased version of the video for her song "Me & U" appeared on YouTube less than a month after the clip was filmed. The previous cut was filmed in Toronto, Canada and directed by Little X. In stark contrast to the more polished video that appeared on mainstream media outlets like MTV and BET, the original version depicts Cassie singing to an unidentified male (represented by the camera) before taking him home, presumably to engage in sexual intercourse. On her NS4LIFE Journal, the singer denounced the earlier video saying that it was "low budget"[1] and "scarred the beginnings for a very bright future." She also said that she made the second version "clean" to preserve her "name and image." There have also been accusations that she is a poor vocalist after disastrous performances on TRL and BET, however Cassie has stated on her blog that the reason for the dire performances was nervousness and is completely unrelated to her vocal talent. Cassie's self-titled debut album Cassie was released August 8, 2006. Leaks of her album were already found on the internet.

Discography

Albums

Singles

  • "Me & U" (2006) US #3, UK #23
  • "Long Way To Go" (2006)
  1. ^ "Cassie - Video". YouTube. 2006-07-09. Retrieved 2006-08-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)