- Rappin' Granny
Infobox musical artist
Name=Rappin' Granny Marie Anne Lovion
Img_capt=Rappin' Granny on "America's Got Talent "
Background=solo_singer
Birth_name= Marie Anne Lovion
Alias=
Born=1933
Origin=Castaic, California , U.S.
Instrument=Guitar
Genre=Hip hop
Occupation=Musician Actor
Years_active=1989–present
Label=
URL=Vivian Smallwood (born
1933 ), known by herstage name Rappin' Granny, is agrandmother who performship-hop music . She lives inCastaic, California , near Los Angeles.Smallwood was a contestant on the
NBC television series "America's Got Talent " who qualifiedAugust 16 ,2006 season finale for the one-million-dollar grand prize.Background
In 1989 she released a little-known, self-titled music video called "Rock-n-Soul". The video can be seen here. [http://music.yahoo.com/ar-297469-videos--Rappin-Granny]
Acting credits
Smallwood has been a working Hollywood actress since the mid '90s. She has appeared in numerous television shows with small parts and a few feature films. Some of her credits include, "
Everybody Hates Chris ", "Malcolm in the Middle ", "The Shield ", and "The Ladykillers". In "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood " (1996) she is even credited as Vivian 'Rappin Granny' Smallwood. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0806614/] Also to her credit, she has played "Nano", in "Big Bad Beetleborgs ", a show on the formerFox Kids network.Rapping
According to an interview that aired on "America's Got Talent", Smallwood began rapping at the insistence of her son, who noticed her dancing across the room while hip-hop music was playing in the background. After a number of private performances in front of family members, Smallwood auditioned for the new talent contest co-created by famous music executive
Simon Cowell ."America's Got Talent"
In her audition, Rappin' Granny gave a performance that was very popular among the crowd and the judges, all of whom (Brandy,
David Hasselhoff , andPiers Morgan ) advanced her to the next round by way of a unanimous vote.Smallwood then returned for the semifinal episode that aired
July 26 ,2006 . After another crowd-pleasing song , the judges again put her through to the next round, by another unanimous vote.However, the final round was not kind to Smallwood; not only did she not win the million-dollar prize, she finished in the bottom half of the public vote that determined the winner, as announced by host
Regis Philbin .Family
Smallwood has 14
grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.Sources
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* [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=FB&p_theme=fb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAE8206A2FCE74A&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM Fresno Bee article]
* [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&s_site=mercurynews&p_multi=SJ&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB72DF0D254A9D5&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM San Jose Mercury News article]
* [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-2356240.html Columbus times article]
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