Brandy Norwood is insurmountably precious to the culture. She has timeless classics, has been dubbed the 'vocal bible', and she has gracefully pillaged through the music industry ever since she was 14-ish years old. She has avoided all the major chaos of child stars, and now our girl is back to her old self, and feeling allllll of it!
And after releasing a new, highly-anticipated (and snubbed) album in 2020, our sis has re-emerged happy, healthy, and playing no games with the people, m'kay?!
And rightfully so, as she took to social media to show off her glow; a glow that made her appear as if she hasn't aged a single day in her life. I mean, this woman has been balancing fame for almost thirty years. Thirty years! *Randy Watson stomps*
It all started with an Instagram post, where the 42-year-old mega star showed off something new about herself, something we haven't seen in a while: her stepping into her full self. Simply captioned, "There she goes...," Brandy had us all questioning what year it was, as her youthful appearance caught the attention of the world wide web.
From here, a variety of other photos have been posted to her social media, dubbing her the queen of "42 where?!"
And needless to say, her noticeable light took a while for her to get back to. She told People last year that the journey is landing her footing where it is now, took time.
"I was a little bit lost eight years ago musically, creatively, spiritually, I had to pull myself together, I had to pull it all together and make it all make sense. I remember laying in bed super depressed. And I [told] myself, 'So, you're just going to go out like this? That's wack. You have a daughter. If you can't do it for yourself, do it for her because this is not the way to leave a mark in her life.'"
And neither her, or Sy'rai, who is now 18 and who Brandy credits for saving her life, have looked back since.
"If Sy'rai wasn't here, I wouldn't be either. The place that I was in, it just felt like I wasn't going to make it through."
Well, sis has done more than triumphed through, as she has a new TV show premiering on ABC this year. The show stars Naturi Naughton, Eve, and Nadine Velazquez, all of which she has also flaunted on her social media. Additionally, her latest album, B7, has received critical acclaim from industry peers and fans, alike, cementing her place as a living legend within her own right.
So the fact that sis is basking in the moment, so openly and so fulfilled, likeeeee, we're here for ittttt. All of ittt.
And listen, I say all of this to say...
...as women, we come into who we are in our thirties, and we actually are these people in our forties. And Brandy, who has openly struggled with her confidence as a celebrity, may have always felt like she may not be thin enough, or pretty enough, or light-skinned enough to maintain longevity. But she has single-handedly revolutionized what it means to be a vocalist, or an actress, a mom, a legend, or even a princess.
And she had to figure it all out in front of the world, she had to learn what this means, herself: a young Black girl, becoming a woman.
So, to see her glowing, to see her age over the span of thirty years (without a single trace of proof that she even aged at all), and to see her make big energy strides, unapologetically, is wtf we love to see. And we can't wait to see more.
Thank you for everything, Brandy!
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Featured image by Leon Bennett/STA 2020/Getty Images for BET