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Adrienne Bailon-Houghton — news, coverage & facts — IJR

1983–2002: Early life, career beginnings, and 3LW

Adrienne Eliza Bailon was born to a Puerto Rican mother, Nilda Alicea and an Ecuadorian father, Freddie Bailón, on October 24, 1983. She grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Bailon has an older sister, Claudette. She attended PS 110-The Monitor in Brooklyn and the High School for Health Professions and Human Services, but did not pursue a career in the medical field because of her musical endeavors. Bailon commented "I really wanted to be an obstetrician! I wanted to bring babies into the world..." Bailon was discovered by Latin pop singer Ricky Martin in October 1999 while she was performing in a church choir at Madison Square Garden. Martin asked for the four best singers in the group, and Bailon was one of the four elected by Martin to perform as back-up singers as part of his Livin' la Vida Loca Tour concert show later that night.

Following the performance, Bailon became a member of the girl group 3LW, joining Kiely Williams and Naturi Naughton, the other two members of the group. Bailon stated that she was spotted by a producer while on a field trip to Beth Israel, and was later offered a slot in the female trio. Bailon said "... coming from very humble beginnings in the projects of the Lower East Side and not having any "Hollywood" connections.... It did not seem realistic. I sang in church, acted in all the church and school plays.... So when the opportunity came to join a girl group I was ready!"

With the original line-up of 3LW formed, the group was signed to Epic Records, and work on their debut album began in 1999. Their first single, "No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)", was released in the fall of 2000. "No More" was a chart success, and was followed by "Playas Gon' Play" in early 2001. The group's self-titled debut album, 3LW was released on November 14, 2000. The album went on to be certified platinum by the RIAA, selling 1.3 million copies in the United States.

3LW returned in the summer of 2002 with the single "I Do (Wanna Get Close To You)", featuring Loon. That same summer, the group performed a concert special on Nickelodeon titled Live on Sunset. By August, the group was set to release their sophomore LP, A Girl Can Mack, when member Naughton left the group, alleging that she had a number of conflicts and arguments with Bailon, Williams, and their management. The album's release date was pushed back a month and debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 with 53,000 copies sold its first week. Following Naughton's departure, Williams and Bailon decided to continue 3LW as a duo, causing the press to jokingly refer to them as "2LW". After A Girl Can Mack's second single "Neva Get Enuf" underperformed, 3LW released their Christmas-themed third studio album Naughty or Nice, which failed to appear on any major Billboard charts.

2003–2008: The Cheetah Girls, 3LW disbandment, and acting career

Beginning in late 2002, 3LW held nationwide auditions for a new third member. Jessica "J" Benson was selected and with Benson, the group continued to promote A Girl Can Mack and began working on their third studio album. In June, 3LW departed from Epic Records and signed with So So Def.

Amidst 3LW's public drama, Bailon and Williams signed on to star in the Disney Channel Original Movie, The Cheetah Girls. They starred as two of four members of a girl group named after the film, with Raven-Symoné and Sabrina Bryan portraying the final two members. The movie premiered in August 2003. Upon release, the film was the number one rated basic cable telecast and premiered to 6.5 million viewers, a record for Disney at the time. The film's soundtrack was certified double platinum by the RIAA. In 2003 and 2004, Bailon had a supporting role on the second season of Disney Channel's That's So Raven in which she played Alana, a personal enemy of the show's title character. In 2005, she appeared as Dominique in Coach Carter, her first theatrically released film.

The success of The Cheetah Girls film prompted Disney to turn the project into a real girl group, composed of Williams, Bailon, and Bryan. Raven was offered a spot in the group but opted to focus on her solo career. Bailon noted that both The Cheetah Girls and 3LW projects would continue concurrently. As a trio, the Cheetah Girls began working on their first studio album, Cheetah-licious Christmas, which was released in 2005. Bailon then starred in the MTV film All You've Got, along with R&B singer Ciara. It was released on DVD in May 2006 and premiered on MTV.

The release of 3LW's third studio album, tentatively titled Phoenix Rising in 2003 and later Point of No Return in 2005, was delayed several times. On August 15, 2006, the group released the single "Feelin' You", but it did not impact any major charts. Point of No Return was shelved and Bailon and Williams continued with The Cheetah Girls. 3LW officially disbanded in 2007.

In April 2006, the Cheetah Girls began filming the sequel musical film The Cheetah Girls 2. Raven-Symoné returned for the film, which was shot on location in Barcelona, Spain. The Cheetah Girls 2 premiered on August 26, 2006, and received over 8.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated premiere for a Disney Channel Original Movie at the time. The film's soundtrack album was certified platinum by the RIAA. The Cheetah Girls released their second studio album TCG on September 25, 2007, which featured the single "Fuego".

In January 2008, filming commenced on the third Cheetah Girls film,The Cheetah Girls: One World, in which the group appeared as a trio without Raven-Symoné. The Cheetah Girls: One World premiered on August 22, 2008 and its soundtrack was released on August 19. While the film was a ratings hit, debuting with 6.2 million viewers, the soundtrack failed to match the success of their previous soundtrack releases and sold 140,000 copies in its first two months. Bailon recorded the solo songs "Stand Up" and "What If" for the film's soundtrack album. In late December 2008, the group disbanded.

2009–2013: Empire Girls, I'm in Love with a Church Girl

Following the breakup of the Cheetah Girls, Bailon was signed to Columbia Records. Making the initial announcement in a radio interview in New York City, Bailon later confirmed the news on her official Twitter page, stating: "For everyone who wasn't in [New York] – I officially announced I have signed a solo deal with Sony's Columbia Records! So happy I'm finally able to tell you guys..." Bailon began working on her debut studio album shortly after signing with the label. Her first official musical releases were the songs "Uncontrollable" and "Big Spender", both of which were featured on the Confessions of a Shopaholic film soundtrack, released in 2009. The soundtrack featured songs from numerous artists, including Lady Gaga and the Pussycat Dolls. Later that year, she was featured in the Ghostface Killah song "I'll Be That", featured on his eighth studio album Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City.

In 2009, Bailon ended her relationship with her boyfriend of two years, Rob Kardashian, the brother of Kim Kardashian.

While dating Rob, Bailon appeared as Rob's girlfriend in a total of eight episodes of the reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The show saw Bailon and Kardashian get tattoos with one another, among other aspects of their relationship. On the breakup, Bailon stated "You know they say opposites attract. I'm a real New Yorker [...] Sometimes I think the things that matter to us were different." Though the reasoning was not announced at the time of the breakup, it was later revealed that Rob had cheated on Bailon during their relationship, which was the ultimate reason they broke up. At the end of 2008, Bailon had appeared on MTV New Year's show from Times Square, in advance promotion of her upcoming afternoon hosting on the channel. In 2009, Bailon hosted the programming block New Afternoons on MTV, relocating to New York City for the job. That same year, she co-hosted MTV News Presents: Top 9 of '09, the year-end MTV New Year's programming live from inside and outside MTV Studios in Times Square. In 2012, Bailon announced that she was taking part in the reality show Empire Girls: Julissa and Adrienne, which would revolve around Bailon and friend Julissa Bermudez. Bailon said of the show's premise, "The show follows us wanting to take our careers to the next level, coming back to New York City, where we’re originally from [...] to take our careers to that next level." The show premiered on June 3, 2012 and became a ratings success for Style Network. Bailon later appeared in the music video for Pitbull's "Give Me Everything".

On November 1, 2012, Bailon appeared alongside Jesse Giddings and Jim Cantiello, as the co-host of The Pepsi Pre-show Live, a podcast that was sponsored by Pepsi, and broadcast through The X Factor website one hour before every episode in the live rounds of the show. Also in 2012, Bailon separated from Island Def Jam due to creative differences. Bailon portrayed Katalina Santiago in the film, The Coalition, which was released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2013. Bailon appeared in the ABC Family television movie, Lovestruck: The Musical, on April 21, 2013. It showcased Bailon singing the Madonna classic, "Like a Virgin" with Sara Paxton and Chelsea Kane. Other songs Bailon sang in the film include a song titled "Everlasting Love", featuring Paxton, Kane, and Drew Seeley. Bailon starred alongside Ja Rule in the film I'm in Love with a Church Girl, which was released in October 2013.