Bria Valente is an American singer. A protégée of Prince

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

, Valente released her debut album, Elixer

Lotusflower (album)

Lotusflow3r is the twenty-sixth studio album by American musician Prince, released March 24, 2009 on NPG Records. A triple album set, it contains two Prince albums, LOtUSFLOW3R and MPLSºUND, as well as Elixer, the debut album of Prince protegée Bria Valente...

, as part of a three-album set with Prince's LOtUSFLOW3R

Lotusflower (album)

Lotusflow3r is the twenty-sixth studio album by American musician Prince, released March 24, 2009 on NPG Records. A triple album set, it contains two Prince albums, LOtUSFLOW3R and MPLSºUND, as well as Elixer, the debut album of Prince protegée Bria Valente...

and MPLSoUND on March 29, 2009. The collection debuted at #2 on the top Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

albums chart.

Valente was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

. She stated in an interview with Tavis Smiley

Tavis Smiley

Tavis Smiley is a talk show host, author, liberal political commentator, entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi and grew up in Kokomo, Indiana. After attending Indiana University, he worked during the late 1980s as an aide to Tom Bradley, the mayor of...

 that she first met Prince at the age of 17 at Paisley Park Studios while working with keyboardist Morris Hayes. She later moved to Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, and worked as a model

Model (person)

A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

 and background dancer for Usher

Usher (entertainer)

Usher Terry Raymond IV , who performs under the mononym Usher, is an American singer-songwriter, and actor. He is considered around the world to be the reigning King of R&B. Usher rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way, which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100...

. She is credited with backing vocals on Usher's 2001 album 8701

8701 (album)

8701 is the third studio album by American R&B singer Usher, released by Arista Records on August 7, 2001, in North America. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2000 to 2001, and was handled by several producers including The Neptunes, Jermaine Dupri, Babyface, Kevin "She'kspere"...

.

Valente returned to Minneapolis, where she began her association with Prince, contributing vocals to his 2007 album, Planet Earth

Planet Earth (album)

Planet Earth is the twenty-fifth studio album by American musician Prince, first released July 15, 2007 in the UK as a free covermount with The Mail on Sunday national newspaper. This was followed by the album's worldwide distribution...

. Valente recorded Elixer in 2009; she sang lead vocals, with Prince on guitar, and Morris Hayes providing beats. Prince described it as a quiet storm

Quiet storm

Quiet storm is a late-night radio format, featuring soulful slow jams, pioneered in the mid-1970s by then-station-intern Melvin Lindsey at WHUR-FM, in Washington, D.C. Smokey Robinson's like-titled hit single, released in 1975 as the title track to his third solo album, lent its name to the format...

 album. The music review website Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 rated the album 49 out of 100, labeling it as having "mixed or average reviews", based on 12 reviews. The album was released through the website lotusflow3r.com, as well as exclusively through U.S. retailer Target

Target Corporation

Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...

.

Valente has been Prince's girlfriend since 2007. As of 2011, they are still in a relationship. Valente has also become one of Jehovah's Witness since they have been together.

Discography

• Elixer
  Lotusflower (album)
  Lotusflow3r is the twenty-sixth studio album by American musician Prince, released March 24, 2009 on NPG Records. A triple album set, it contains two Prince albums, LOtUSFLOW3R and MPLSºUND, as well as Elixer, the debut album of Prince protegée Bria Valente...
  
  (2009), NPG Records
  NPG Records
  NPG Records is the current active record label owned by Prince, founded in 1993 to release his music after Paisley Park Records. Paisley Park was shut down by Warner Bros. Records in 1993. Warner Bros. distributed one NPG release in 1995, The Gold Experience. "NPG" is short for "New Power...
  
   – debut album, produced by Prince
  Prince (musician)
  Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
  
  .