Ciara could learn from Mandy Moore and her troubled music career

Recently, I watched Elliot Wilson’s ‘The Truth’ on Jay’s Life+Times YouTube channel, with his latest episode titled Top 6 Wishes for Hip Hop. One of his wishes was to see Ciara go away. It got me to thinking how Ciara once was one of the hottest performers out, then I instantly starting wondering what she should do better to return to relevancy. Elli Wilson’s reasoning behind being so harsh was valid; because let’s face it, Ciara’s music lately hasn’t been the most enjoyable — and I’m saying this as nicely as possible.

Ciara has sold over seven million albums worldwide, and more than 4.3 million albums and 6.9 million digital singles in the United States alone [source]. The bulk of her sales came from her debut album Goodies, which is about half of her total sales. Ciara is having a hard time staying relevant, and with Jive records dropping her from the label, makes things even worse.

So I thought about another starlet who changed her career completely around once her music became irrelevant, and that star is Mandy Moore. The pop singer’s first album debuted in the pop age of 1999, where you had acts such as The Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, 98 degrees, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and etc. Her album So Real (1999), went platinum selling over a million copies; it was followed by a strong sophomore effort called I Wanna Be with You (2000) [source], which sold nearly a million copies as well. However, sales began to slide tremendously after those two successful releases.

Mandy Moore’s last album Amanda Leigh only brought in a minuscule number of around 16,000 record sales (2009). Overall, Moore has sold 2,742,000 albums to date, which is still much less than what Ciara has sold in her career.

Okay. I know what some of you are saying, “Why compare these two anyway?” Well, let me get to that point now. See, Mandy figured out she could stay relevant by getting herself into acting roles. Quietly, Mandy Moore has made herself quite the acting career. She’s done movies like A Walk to Remember, voice overs in animated films like Tangled and Tangled Ever After; now she’s playing the voice of Mara on one of my favorite shows TRON: Uprising [IMDb]. Point is, Mandy Moore is kind of a big deal, even if it doesn’t seem like it.

If I were managing Ciara, I would try to shift her toward Hollywood or television; learning to hone a craft in all aspects of the performing arts could give her longevity. She’s only 27, so that means she still has a bunch of time to reinvent herself, similar to what Mandy Moore has done with her career.

In the end, Mandy Moore makes music because she wants to, not because she has to. Ciara needs to follow her footsteps.