Dana Elaine Owens was the name given to Queen Latifah when she was born on March 18, 1970 in Newark, New Jersey. She spent the majority of her childhood in East Orange, New Jersey. When she was ten years old, her parents filed for divorce. Her stage name, Latifah, comes from an Arabic word that translates as “delicate” and “extremely kind.” Latifah, who stood 5 feet 10 inches tall, played the position of power forward for her high school’s girls basketball team. After receiving her diploma from Irvington High School, she enrolled at the Borough of Manhattan Community College to continue her education.
A Career in Music
In the late 1980s, Latifah began her career as a beatboxer and quickly gained the attention of the host of “Yo! MTV Raps.” The song caught the notice of Dante Ross, an employee of Tommy Boy Music. Ross signed Latifah, and the label issued her debut single, titled “Wrath of My Madness,” the following year. Rapping about problems that affect black women was how Latifah first made her name in the hip-hop industry. Her music addressed issues such as relationship problems, street harassment, and domestic abuse in the lyrics of her songs.
In 1989, she released her debut studio album titled “All Hail the Queen.” She was honored with a Candace Award bestowed upon her by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in the year 1992. She went on to make two more albums before Motown Records offered her a recording contract for her fourth studio album, titled “Order in the Court.”
After the release of this album, Queen Latifah moved her musical focus to soul and jazz, and in 2004, she released an album titled “The Dana Owens Album.” In 2007, she headlined a live jazz performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, in which she was accompanied by a 10-piece orchestra. The performance took place at the Hollywood Bowl.
Her subsequent album, titled “Trav’lin’ Light,” featured cameos from musicians performing in a variety of musical styles. The record was considered for a Grammy Award nomination. Her most recent album, “Persona,” which marked her return to hip-hop, was published in 2009 and quickly rose to the third spot on the R&B chart in the United States. Both of her tracks, “Unity” and “Bananas (Who You Gonna Call?) were able to achieve the number two spot on the US Rap chart. After that, “Unity” was awarded a Grammy. During her career as a musician, Queen Latifah has amassed album sales that exceed 2 million globally.
A career in the Theatre
Throughout the course of her extensive career, Queen Latifah has made appearances in a wide variety of critically acclaimed movies and television shows. She appeared as a guest star in two episodes of the second season of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” which was a hit on NBC. This was one of her first appearances. From 1993 until 1998, she was a main cast member on the hit sitcom “Living Single” on FOX, which garnered exceptionally high ratings. Between the years 1991 and 2001, she presided over the critically acclaimed “Queen Latifah Show,” which she later revived for two more seasons in 2013 and 2014.
After being cast in the musical film “Chicago,” which went on to win the Academy Award for best picture, Latifah rose to prominence in the mainstream entertainment industry. For her performance in the part, Latifah was up for best-supporting actress, but her competition, Catherine Zeta-Jones, won the award. She is one of only five R&B performers to gain a nomination for an Oscar in an acting category, and Latifah is one of them.
In 2007, for her performance as an HIV-positive woman in the film “Life Support,” for which she was nominated for her first Golden Globe, she was honored with the award. She has had starring roles in a number of films, including “House Party 2,” “Set It Off,” “Brown Sugar,” “Bringing Down the House,” “Taxi,” “Barbershop 2: Back in Business,” “Beauty Shop,” “Hairspray,” “Valentine’s Day,” “Just Wright,” “The Dilemma,” “22 Jump Street,” and “Girls Trip,” among others. She was promoted to the position of executive producer for the third season of the slasher TV series “Scream” on MTV in 2017, and the show’s third season premiered in 2019.
A Golden Globe award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, a Grammy award, multiple additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy award nomination, and an Academy Award nomination are just some of the accolades that Queen Latifah has received for her work in the fields of music, film, and television. Queen Latifah was honored with the awarding of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 4, 2006.
Other Ventures
Aside from her work in the entertainment industry, she is a spokesperson for several companies, including Pizza Hut, Jenny Craig, and CoverGirl. She is the creator of her own brand of makeup aimed specifically at women of color. In addition, Queen Latifah is the creator of her own perfume collection, which includes the fragrances Queen and Queen of Hearts. In addition to that, she is the author of the book “Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman.”
Personal Life
In 1992, Latifah’s older brother was involved in a motorcycle accident that resulted in his death. She has described how the passing of her brother led to a brief period of sadness and substance usage on her part. She was a victim of carjacking in 1995. The year was 1995. In the year 1996, Latifah was taken into custody and accused of possession of marijuana. After being detained for the second time for driving under the influence in Los Angeles, she was placed on probation for three years. In 2018, Queen Latifah announced that her mother had passed away owing to complications from cardiac disease.
Queen Latifah’s sexual orientation has been the topic of speculation throughout the years, although she has never spoken publicly about her romantic relationships. It has been widely circulated that she had been romantically involved with the choreographer Eboni Nichols.
The dispute between Queen Latifah and Foxy Brown started in the middle of 1996. It was stated by the media that Foxy Brown was the target of the diss track “Name Callin” by Latifah, which was included on the soundtrack for the movie “Set It Off.” Foxy Brown started raising questions about the sexual orientation of Latifah in public during a series of radio interviews in the year 1998, and she later issued a diss song about the subject. Latifah retaliated by producing yet another diss single, this time taking aim at Brown for her dependence on revealing clothing and sexuality in order to sell records. In the year 2000, the two reconciled with one another and demonstrated their newfound peace by singing a song together on “The Queen Latifah Show.”
Net Worth
A singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, model, television producer, record producer, comedienne, and talk show hostess in the United States, Queen Latifah has a net worth of $70 million. She is also a record producer. She has been recognized for a long time as a pioneering woman in the hip-hop community. She has also had a cinematic career that has been extremely fruitful for her.
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