Who Is Ne-Yo’s Wife, Kids, Age, Height, Biography, Is He Gay?

Quick Facts

Is there anyone who doesn’t actually know Shaffer Chimere Smith, popularly known by the stage name Ne-Yo? He is a singer, songwriter, dancer, actor and record producer who gained fame and so much popularity after a song he wrote for Mario, Let Me Love You, became a 2004 hit single. The song became a number one Hot 100 hit on the Billboard chart and was later ranked the eighth most successful single of the decade.

The success of this album became a breaking point as well as a platform for Ne-Yo to ride into a successful music career. By the end of 2009, Ne-Yo had three albums to his credit -seven of his singles, as well as five others in which he appeared as a featured artist, were ranking top ten in the country’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart.

The talented songwriter also wrote Take a Bow,  Irreplaceable and  Spotlight which were all mega-hits. He also co-wrote Marques Houston’s That Girl, as well as Christina Milian’s I’m Sorry.

Read more about the Award-winning artist and what he has been up to in the last decade.

Ne-Yo’s Biography (Age)

Ne-Yo was born Shaffer Chimere Smith in Camden, Arkansas October 18, 1979, and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. His father is of African-American and Chinese descent while his mother is African-American.

Smith’s parents got divorced when he was very small, so he was raised single-handedly by his mom who relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, after the divorce. He attended Las Vegas Academy.

Career

Ne-Yo’s parents are said to be musicians, thus, he must have inherited it from them. While at Las Vegas Academy, he joined an R&B group known as Envy and adopted the stage name GoGo.

After the group disbanded in 2000, Ne-Yo was signed on by Columbia Records which dropped him before his first album which he had already recorded could be released. It was during this period that Marques Houston heard the song That Girl, which was a single from his album, re-recorded the song and released it as a single in 2003. It was the release of this single that actually announced Ne-Yo as a great songwriter and the following years saw him writing a number of other amazing songs which became major hits eventually.

Asides the Rihanna’s Take a Bow, Beyoncé’s Irreplaceable and Jennifer Hudson’s Spotlight, Ne-Yo also gets credits for contributing songs to artist like Musiq, , Faith Evans, B2K, among others. However, his breakthrough came with the success of Mario’s single Let Me Love You.

After performing for the label’s executives of Def Jam, the CEO of the label, signed Ne-Yo on the label and by the following year, he released his debut album In My Own Words, via the label. So Sick – a single actually sold over 301,000 copies in its first week and peaked at number one on Billboard 200. His second album, Because of You, was released in 2007. The album sold 251,000 copies in the U.S and peaked one on the Billboard 200.

Ne-Yo’s third album, Year of the Gentleman, was released in 2008. The first two singles from the album Closer and Miss Independent peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. The album got a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary R&B Album and Album of the Year at the 2009 Grammy Awards. The single Closer also got nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and Miss Independent for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.

In the same year (2009), he was ranked the 57th Artist of the 2000s decade by Billboard. After this time, Ne-Yo went low for some time only to make a come-back in 2010 with Libra Scale – an album he said was inspired by comic books, science fiction, Stevie Wonder and  most ambitious recordings.

In 2012, Ne-Yo signed to Motown and was named the label’s Senior Vice President of A&R, then came the released R.E.D.(“Realizing Every Dream”). The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200.

In May 2017, he released two singles, Earn Your Love and Another Love Song. In July 2017, he made a cameo in the comedy film Girls Trip, alongside stars like , Regina Hall and .

The singer has done collaborations with other artists, including , Akon, Cher Lloyd, David Guetta, and more. The talented singer/songwriter named his music influencers as , Luther Vandross, R. Kelly, Blackstreet, Michael Jackson and Babyface.

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Is He Gay?

The rumour about the talented artist being gay has been an issue that keeps popping up over time despite his several denials. In an interview with Essence in 2009, he revealed that when he first heard the rumour of him being gay, he thought someone must really hate him, even though nothing is wrong in being gay, he added, but that he couldn’t understand why someone would just make up such lies.

In 2015, a site NewsBuzzDaily.com in a report quoted the R&B singer as stating that transition journey has inspired him to come out as gay.

Ne-Yo responded to the rumour with a tweet saying: “U should all know by now not to believe everything you read. Much luv to #CaitlynJenner but I’m not on that team.
Not gay folks. So sorry.” So, folks, you have heard it from the horse’s mouth, Ne-Yo is not gay!

If he is not gay then who is his wife? Is he married? Does he have any kids? read on…

Who Is Ne-Yo’s Wife? Kids

The R&B star is married to beautiful Crystal Renay (model). The couple got married in February 2016 and welcomed their first child together Shaffer Chimere Smith, Jr. the following month.

In December 2017, the couple announced they were expecting their second child together.

Ne-Yo has two other kids Mason Evan (born October 9, 2011) and Madilyn Grace (born November 12, 2010) from his previous relationship with Monyetta Shaw.

Height And Other Facts

Ne-Yo stands at 5 ft 8 in(173 cm) and weighs 74 kg (163 lbs). In 2017, he announced he was adopting a vegan diet after watching a health documentary.

He was arrested in 2008 for reckless driving. In 2011,  sued him alongside DJ Afrojack and rapper , claiming the lyrics of their song Give Me Everything referenced her by name. They won the lawsuit after the court ruled that Pitbull’s use of the name was protected by the First Amendment and that the song barely mentioned her name.

Also Read: Top 10 Richest People in the world with full biography and details.