Chilli

Chilli is a Swiss act name used by several different artists and groups, including a solo artist associated with TLC, an alternative rock band formed in 1999, a solo artist from Latvia, and a dance group assembled in Germany. The best-known act under this name is Rozonda Ocelean Thomas, an American singer born in Atlanta, Georgia, who performs as Chilli and is a member of TLC.

TLC

Rozonda Thomas joins TLC after the group begins as 2nd Nature in the late 1980s, when Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes meet Pebbles and form the group. The name changes to TLC to represent Tionne, Lisa and Crystal, and Crystal is later replaced by Thomas after L.A. Reid discovers her while she is dancing with Damian Dame. She takes the name Chilli to fit the final letter of the group’s name, with the nickname reflecting the “sauce and the flavor” she brings to the act.

TLC releases its debut album, Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip, which goes triple platinum. The group follows it with CrazySexyCool, a more sensual album that includes “Creep,” “Waterfalls” and “Red Light Special” and sells more than 11 million copies worldwide, making it the group’s most successful album. During work on the next album, Chilli has a son, Tron, with producer Dallas Austin. Tron is born in 1997.

TLC’s next album, FanMail, includes “No Scrubs,” led by Chilli, and “Unpretty.” It sells more than 9 million copies worldwide and gives the group its first headlining world tour. Chilli also appears in films during this period, including the Nickelodeon film Snow Day and VH1’s A Diva’s Christmas Carol.

Later TLC work and television

While TLC works on its fourth album, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes dies in a car accident in Honduras. The planned release is then replaced by a greatest-hits project before Chilli and T-Boz decide to continue with a new album. The album, 3D, is named before Lopes’s death and appears in 2002. It produces the singles “Girl Talk” and “Damaged.” TLC then releases Now and Forever, a greatest-hits set with new tracks from Dallas Austin and Lil’ Jon.

In 2004, discussion around a reality series develops into R U the Girl with T-Boz & Chilli on UPN. The programme follows Rozonda Thomas and Tionne Watkins and gives rapper O’ So Krispie of Atlanta the chance to join them on a track. A song titled “I Bet” is recorded but later removed.

Solo activity and background

Thomas is born Rozonda Ocelean Thomas on 27 February 1971 in Atlanta, Georgia. Her father, Abdul Ali, is of Arab and Indian descent, and her mother, Ava Thomas, is African American. As a child she is teased for her appearance. She later becomes one of People’s 50 Most Beautiful People. She does not meet her father until 1996, when they appear together on the Sally Jessy Raphael show, and she later discovers she has a brother and a sister who live with her.

She says she realises she wants to sing after seeing Janet Jackson’s Control video and singing along while working as a teenager. She later works on a solo debut album titled Bi-Polar, which is scheduled but not released, and which is said to involve production from T-Pain, Akon, Battery 5 and Tricky. She performs with T-Boz at a charity concert hosted by Justin Timberlake in 2009.

Alternative rock band

Another act using the name Chilli is an alternative rock band formed in late 1999. A further version of the name belongs to a three-piece dance group with American vocalists and dancers, produced in Germany by Frank Farian. That group has short-lived international visibility after re-recording Carrapicho’s “Tic, Tic Tac” as “Chilli feat. Carrapicho,” and later issues its own 1998 single, “Say I’m Your No. 1,” a cover of Raffaella Carrà’s “A Far L’Amore Comincia Tu.”