Faith Evans

Faith Evans is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record executive whose three-decade career has made her one of the most-iconic American R&B vocalists of the 1990s and one of the foundational figures of the Bad Boy Records era. She was born Faith Renée Evans on June 10, 1973, in Lakeland, Florida, and raised primarily by foster parents in Newark, New Jersey. She attended Fordham University in New York for one year before pivoting to a music career.

Her career began as a backup vocalist and songwriter for Mary J. Blige, Pebbles, and other early-1990s R&B artists. She was signed by Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs to Bad Boy Records in 1994 — becoming the first female artist signed to the 1990s East Coast hip-hop and R&B label. Her 1995 self-titled debut album Faith sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States and produced the R&B singles "Soon as I Get Home," "You Used to Love Me," and "Come Over."

Evans married fellow Bad Boy artist Christopher Wallace (The Notorious B.I.G.) in August 1994, just nine days after they met at a Bad Boy photo shoot. Their marriage lasted until his March 1997 murder in Los Angeles. The 1997 Puff Daddy & Faith Evans single "I'll Be Missing You" — featuring 112, sampling The Police's "Every Breath You Take," and explicitly tribute-dedicated to The Notorious B.I.G. — became one of the most-iconic American songs of 1997. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 1998, and became the bestselling rap song of the 1990s.

Her subsequent albums Keep the Faith (1998), Faithfully (2001), The First Lady (2005), and Something About Faith (2010) consolidated her position as one of the most-iconic American R&B singers of her era. She authored the bestselling 2008 memoir Keep the Faith. She has continued to record, tour, and serve as a recurring TV personality on R&B-themed programs.

Her name Faith is from the Latin fides meaning "trust" or "belief" — used in English-speaking countries as one of the Christian virtue names alongside Hope and Charity. Faith has been continuously among the most-popular American girls' names since the early 2000s.