American singer/songwriter Pharrell Lanscilo Williams was born 51 years ago in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is married and has 4 children. He is also a rapper, record producer and fashion designer.
As a kid, he played the drums and was also in the school’s band. He attended high school, graduated and proceeded with his studies at university, but dropped out after 2 years.
In the early 90s, Pharrell formed the hip hop band ‘Surrounded by Idiots’ but it soon disbanded prior to releasing any songs. He went on to create the duo ‘The Neptunes’ and until the beginning of the 2000s, they produced numerous tracks and albums for many other artists. Then, the band ‘N.E.R.D.’ was formed together with two other musicians, with Williams as lead singer. Their debut album was released in 2001, whilst continuing to produce songs for other artists over the years. These included Babyface, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Madonna and Shakira, amongst others.
Pharrell’s debut solo album came out in 2006, named ‘In my Mind’, which placed third on the US Billboard 200. A second album named ‘Girl’ was released 8 years later i.e. in 2014.
In 2013, the movie ‘Despicable Me 2’ was released and its soundtrack hit ‘Happy’ written by Pharrell shot to number one in many music charts worldwide and sold over 10 million copies globally, helping him become an international star. That same year, Williams took part in the videos of another two number one hits: ‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke and Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’.
During his career so far, Williams won 57 awards, including 13 Grammy, 6 Billboard Music, 4 BET, 1 MTV Video Music, 1 Brit, 4 NAACP Image and 1 ASCAP Golden Note, apart from the numerous nominations he received, both for music and movies.
*Image: no infringement intended. Source: Daily Star