Omarion

Singer

Name at birth: Omari Grandberry

Omarion's debut solo album, O, zoomed to #1 on the Billboard charts in its first week of release in 2005. Omarion had been on the charts before, as the lead singer of the soulful boy band B2K. That band broke up late in 2003, and just over a year later Omarion returned with O. As a solo crooner, Omarion proved to be a buffed-up loverboy of the Usher school; tunes on O included "I Wish," "Growing Pains" and "Never Gonna Let You Go" (a duet with Big Boi of Outkast). Omarion also dabbled in acting with roles in the 2004 movies You Got Served and Fat Albert. His autobiography, also titled O, was published in 2005, and his second release, 21 (2007) debuted at no. 1 and includes the hits "Entourage" and "Ice Box."

Extra credit: Omarion's fellow singers in B2K were Raz-B, Lil Fizz and J-Boog.

R&B crooners of an earlier era included Luther Vandross and Barry White.