After moments of hesitation, Universal Music Group finally decided to choose “Energy” as the first single promoting Keri Hilson’s debut album. When working on this R&B-style song, Keri collaborated with The-Dream,  Louis Biancaniello, Rico Love, Sam Watters and Wayne Wilkins. It promoted her debut album “In a Perfect World” and was launched on 26 July 200. Several months later the complete album was released. The single was accompanied with a music video directed by  Melina Matsoukas and produced by  Wohn Winter. Hilson plays a female boxer who goes out with her coach. Unfortunately, their relationship is on the verge of breaking down, although she seems to be unaware of it. She struggles both in the ring and in personal life. Finally she realizes that some things must be let fall apart… “Energy” received mixed reception, reaching the second place in New Zealand, but only 21-78 in the United States charts, the most successful being Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, where it reached position 21.

“Knock You Down” is one of the most played and best scoring tracks from Keri Hilson’s debut album. Keri Hilson created this R&B song in collaboration with Nathaniel Hills, Marcella Araica, Kevin KC Cossoma, Shaffer Smith, and Kanye West. It received favorable reviews by the critics, who appreciated the combination of Keri Hilson’s and Kanye West’s vocals. A “Newday” reviewer went as far as to sat that “the initial rap verses by West make the song interesting, but Hilson’s vocals make it perfect.” That pretty much exhausts the topic. The single, produces by Danja, soon won the hearts of fans in the United States. Initially it occupied the 65^th position in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but just a week later it jumped up eleven places, and after the next eleven weeks it became third, making it the most successful single promoting “In a Perfect World…”. We should also mention that the album’s popularity was not confined to the United States alone, but proves a great success in New Zealand as well. A week after the release it sprang up to the tops of album charts.

Keri Hilson has not only collaborated with other artists, but also taken part in a number of charity projects. One of them was “Oh Africa”, a song recorded as a part of Pepsi’s promotional campaign aiming to bring up the issue of poverty among African teenagers. Keri gladly joined the noble cause, persuaded by the fact that the organizer had pledged to support young Africans financially. Apart from that, there was a number of well-known artists involved in the project, including Akon, the lead performer of the song and the originator of the whole idea. The music video starred world’s leading football players, such us Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba, Kaká, Fernando Torres, Lionel Messi, Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and Andrei Arshavin, and a number of singers. Each artist was painted with national symbols and colors. By they way, Poland was represented by Ramona Ray. It is also worth noting that the famous  Soweto Gospel Choir was involved in the recording.

Have you ever wondered why Keri Hilson gives such wicked titles to her albums? The reason is quite simple: she wants to provide us with a moment of thought and reflection about various things in life. In many interviews given after the release of her debut album Keri emphasized that the title “In a Perfect World” was intentional. “It’s my way of saying nothing in the world is perfect and no person in it is, either. None of us are exempt from certain hardships and heartbreaks. It was really important for me to write songs that women can relate to from real situations. I didn’t want to do an album that painted myself as perfect because no matter how things look, no one is,” she said on one occasion. This is tantamount to admitting that music is not only a matter of fun, but education as well. It should provoke reflection. Another example of this is the title of her second album, “No Boys Allowed”. Contrary to what you might think at the first glance, the album is about men, their role in every woman’s life and the way they are perceived by the fair sex. Keri shares her personal experiences. In fact, she wants men to realize how important they are…

It might seem that in a perfect world everything comes easy. The example of Keri Hilson and her debut album “In a Perfect World…” clearly shows this is not always true. The album was released in 2009, although initially it had been planned for 2007! For the years the Universal Music Group could not make the final decision and the date of release was constantly postponed. The same was the case with the choice of singles to promote the album. Keri has admitted that the song she wished to become the promotional single did not even make into the album. What’s more, the publisher chose songs that failed to win much popularity in the end. The fourth single, however, turned out to be a perfect choice and helped “In a Perfect World” gain success. Let’s just say that 94,000 copies were sold in the first week after its release! Of course it quickly received Gold status. From then on everything went smoothly. The album sold great and had to be re-edited. Its popularity was also evident from the numerous nominations for prestigious music awards, including best new artist and best R&B/soul vocalist awards.

Keri’s private life remains a mystery, although at one point a celebrity gossip portal suggested a relationship with another R&B singer. After that her private life ceased to be discussed and everyone focused on her music… Certainly there is much to focus on and to discuss, as Keri Hilson seems to be one of the most important artists debuting in 2010s. On the other hand, her two albums are distinctive in their own ways, especially in terms of quality. Perhaps that is why the reviews have been so varied. As far as “In a Perfect World…” goes, it seems that the recording company made a mistake choosing promotional singles. The first two went rather unnoticed. But the fourth one won tremendous success and had favorable responses from both the audience and the critics. The final album received very good reviews and Keri was quickly acknowledged as the best new artist of 2009. But the second album “No Boys Allowed”, released a year later, could not be saved by virtually any track. Although the crew working on the release had been almost the same, the effect was far from spectacular. No wonder the album received mixed reviews. Some critics were still impressed by Keri’s previous album and had a trust in her talent, but others claimed her production was nothing special. Which of them were right? Well, listen to it and decide for yourself…

In fact, Keri Hilson’s musical career started already at the childhood stage, when her parents decided to enroll her in singing and piano classes. This proved to be a great idea, as Keri displayed musical skills since early years of her life. The knowledge and experience gained as a child came as she grew up. Her professional career began when she joined The Clutch, a group of song writers. Despite being just nineteen at the time, she had no problem writing lyrics for such famous artists as Britney Spears, Usher or Ludacris. Three years later Keri took up another challenge. Now for the first time she lent her own voice for a music album. Her vocals were featured in Xzibit’s “Hey Now (Mean Muggin)”. The subsequent years brought even more guest appearances. She collaborated with Diddy and Lloyd Banks, and was featured in two songs by Timbaland, which quickly made it to the tops of music charts. At the same time she was working on her own album, which was finally released in 2009 and which won her the hearts of fans from all over the world.

She is beautiful, sexy, somewhat mysterious… Which makes her a perfect candidate for the face o Avon, a world famous cosmetic manufacturing company. Keri replaced Jennifer Hudson. According to Avon North America marketing executive Bob Briddon, “Keri embodies everything the Avon woman aspires to be—beauty, grace, confidence, and success” not to mention her natural grace and charm. Bob Briddon emphasized that his company was “thrilled to have her on board”. She was announced the face of Avon in July 2010 and has appeared in commercials advertising the Imari fragrance collection and a line of make-up cosmetics. So far, they have been advertised by Fergie, Salma Hayek, Reese Witherspoon, Courtney Cox. So why the decision to engage a young singer all of a sudden, who’d had her debut album released just a year before? Apparently the company hoped she ould help market their products to her audience, whose musical tastes lie in the R&B, hip-hop and soul area. Avon also hopes to increase the popularity and awareness of the cosmetic brands promoted by Keri. We’re in no position to judge this move in terms of marketing efficiency, but it must have substantially improved the balance of Keri’s bank account. After all, Avon is famous for generosity when it comes to rewarding its stars.

The release of “Return the Flavor” completely changed the fate of the upcoming album “In a Perfect World”. It was then that the music industry and the audience really acknowledged Keri. No wonder everyone waited for another single. The next song Keri decided to release under the Universal Music label was “Knock You Down”, which featured Kanye West and Ne-Yo. The single quickly won the hearts of the fans and occupied high positions on world music charts, especially in New Zealand. In the United States it received Gold status. Many experts perceive “Knock You Down” as Keri’s representative song. The final single promoting the album “In a Perfect World” was “Slow Dance”, released on 21 July 2009. Unlike the previous one, however, it went rather unnoticed and didn’t even make it to the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Its biggest success was the 49^th position in the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop 100 chart. It’s worth noting that there was yet another single promoting the upcoming album (“I Like”), released exclusively in Germany, where it gained tremendous popularity.

Keri Hilson’s musical career has already resulted in a number of nominations and awards. Only in 2009, when she released her debut album, she was nominated for 14 music awards! But the first nomination came already in 2007, when together with Timbaland she won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Single (“The Way I Are”). The same track was nominated for the Monster Single of the Year award at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. But there were more successes to come. Two years later Keri was nominated for American Music Awards in two categories: Favorite R&B/Hip-Hop Artist and Breakthrough Artist. The same year she won the BET Award for Best New Artist and also got nominations for Viewer’s Choice, Best Collaboration and Best R&B Artist. But that was not the end: she won the Soul Train Award for Best New Artist and the MOBO Award for Best R&B/Soul Artist. A year later Keri won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding New Artist. Not to mention several other nominations… So it is safe to say Keri’s career looks very promising.