Ericka Streets

> "***Yep, in labor right now. IT'S A POTATO!***"
> ― Ericka in 2007, when she received a voicemail asking if she was pregnant
>
>

**Ericka Ilizabeth Streets** (born 2 July 1985) is a Kuboian singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer and YouTuber, who has also ventured into being an actress, pageant queen, author, and talent agent. With a career lasting since 1999, she is regarded as one of the most influential people of the 21st celebrity, as well as one of the most celebrated and honoured Kuboian celebrities of all-time. She is of the most high-profile individuals in the country of Kuboia, often referred to as "the Kuboian Beyoncé".

Ericka performed in several singing and dancing competitions as a child, and released her debut album *Ericka Illizabeth* in 1999 at the age of fourteen. A Christian pop album, it was a commercial failure, leading her to venture into beauty pageantry. She made her pageant debut at the *Miss Teen Kuboia* Mardi Gras pageant of 2001, at age fifteen, and became the youngest beauty queen in the country. She later expanded her career by returning to music, with her 2003 mainstream debut single "Here We Go" becoming the best-selling single of all time in Kuboia, and has become the best-selling Kuboian musical artist of all time, with "Here We Go" and "Red Lipstick" being the top two best-selling singles in the country. She has had thirteen songs top the Kuboia Top 100 and holds the record for the most number-one singles on said chart.

Outside of Kuboia, Ericka has achieved major success and popularity in the rest of Europe, including twelve number-ones on the Sjajòqija Top-100, tying her with Britney Spears and Rihanna for the most number-ones on said chart. She has also achieved three number-one singles on the UK Singles Chart. Meanwhile, in the United States, Ericka has remained relatively unknown throughout her career, but has developed a cult following amongst gay men.

## Early life

Ericka Isabel Lozano, alongside her twin sister Karina, was born on 2 July 1985 in Reichetto, Dominion of Kuboia (now a part of East Kuboia). Her father, Enrique Lozano (b. 1952), is a retired retail manager who is half white Kuboian of Scottish and Irish descent, and half Afro-Cuban. Her mother, Enerba Lozano (*née* Esposito; 1954-2010) was a retired university teacher, who was a biracial Sallilandic woman of Malagasy, German and Serbian descent. Ericka's father, Enrique, was committing adultery with Ashleigh Smith. At the age of seven, after witnessing a physical fight between Enerba, Ashleigh and Enrique over Enrique's promiscuity, Ericka and Karina ran away from home.

They were later adopted by opera singer Kathryn McCall and political activist Hugo Streets, who changed the twins' last name to Streets, and Ericka later persuaded her parents to change her middle name to an English form, Ilizabeth, at her own request. Recalling her childhood, Ericka stated that she "never felt unloved, but could never truly connect to *[her]* adoptive parents." Hugo was a devout Catholic, and Ericka was influenced by him to become Catholic herself, even though he never obligated her to practice religion.

According to Ericka herself, she began singing "basically as soon as [she] could talk" and showed great interest in becoming either a singer or an actress. Despite excelling in school, she spent most of her time as a student with no friends, and struggled to fit in. When attempting to join the school choir, she was harassed out of doing so, and was trained in singing by her adoptive mother instead. At the age of thirteen, Ericka's music teacher noticed that she would often sing and dance throughout corridors and always got the highest grades in music class, and so recommended her to several performing arts schools.

Ericka was transferred to a performing arts school midway through seventh grade, and was one of the only students to train in both singing and acting. As all students at the school were required to learn to play an instrument, she chose to learn the guitar, explaining that she "picked it because [she] was inspired by all the ways artists use guitars in their music." In the summer of 1999, Ericka's singing teacher encouraged her to record herself singing some songs she had written and produced. She recorded two songs, called "Shining" and "We're Gonna", and decided that she would use the recordings as a demo tape if a record label was interested in her. Ericka also got the lead role in every school musical that she auditioned for. She became a popular student at performing arts school, and was known for hosting house parties where she would entertain guests by singing Mariah Carey and Madonna songs.

In order to make money to fund her music, Ericka got a job as a daycare assistant in Green Spot Nursery in 1999. Talking about the role in 2004, Ericka explained "I simply loved it. I would play with them, read them stories and sing with them. Honestly, performing for people who can't judge me helped me with my confidence." She remained in the role until she got fired in April 2000 after getting distracted and dancing with a mop, which was lodged between her buttocks and had to be surgically removed for risk of impalement.

## Career

### 2000-2004: Career beginnings, pageantry and *Make Way*

In May 2000, a few weeks after Ericka had been fired from her daycare job, she applied through school to appear in the *Miss Teen Kuboia* teen pageant as she felt that it would "help [her] with [her] creativity". The pageant took place on Mardi Gras 2001 with Ericka winning first prize for her pancake-themed performance.

After the pageant, Ericka sent her CV to MTV Networks Kuboia – which was looking for presenters for their upcoming TV channel Nick Go! – as she felt she was confident appearing on public and good with children. On 29 May 2001, Ericka had an informal interview with Rodrick Miles, who found her delightful and immediately hired her. However, he later found out about the "mop incident" around 2 weeks after the interview and therefore fired Ericka through a threatening voicemail.

Believing that television wouldn’t work out for her, Ericka started focusing on becoming a singer. In August 2001, she signed a five-album recording contract with Oyea Records after close friend Tammy Poehler convinced the executives to hire her (Ericka) through submitting Ericka's demo tape to the label. Work started on a debut album, slated for a 2002 release, almost immediately.

In December 2001, Ericka appeared in a Christmas beauty pageant, which she also won first prize for. After negotiation between the pageant company and Rodrick Miles, Ericka was "unfired" from Nickelodeon and was invited to another informal interview in January 2002. However, due to her "rude" tone, she was fired again and allegedly blackballed just minutes into the interview. Due to this, Ericka started to focus on pageantry and "forget about" working in TV. She is notable for winning almost all pageants she appeared in, and was transferred from *Miss Teen Kuboia* to adult *Kuboian Beauty* pageants in July 2003 with her 18th birthday.

On 11 February 2003, Ericka's debut single "Here We Go" – which featured rapper Kool Teazer and was based on Ericka's 1999 demo "We're Gonna" – began being sold as a CD single in stores. The song received little publicity until they performed it live at her Mardi Gras pageant on 4 March. After the pageant performance, it debuted at number one on the Karuboia charts, and would go on to be the best-selling single of all-time in Kuboia. Ericka's next single, "Mornin' Come (Sun Don't Shine)" – which was heavily based on "I Got The" by Labi Sifre – was released on 22 April 2003, and peaked at number three on the Karuboia charts. Her debut extended play, *Make Way*, was released on 10 June 2003, and is her second-best-selling album domestically.

While it was expected that Ericka would embark on a world tour to promote the EP, she refused to do so, crediting an insufficient amount of songs to perform and being preoccupied with her pageantry career. She instead performed several of the EP's songs during her beauty pageants.

### 2004-2007: *We Go*, *Fashionistas with Issues*, *First Call for Global Success* and other projects

After the release of *Make Way*, Ericka returned to full-time pageantry. During a *Miss Kuboia* pageant in November 2003, she was talent-scouted by a PBV Hartlania executive to become an actress for PBV. Those at PBV noticed Ericka's musical talents and allowed her to record music for soundtracks, providing that she released a studio album under PBV Records first. The album, *We Go*, was completed in five months for a release on 18 May 2004, spawning four singles. At a Christmas pageant that year, Ericka announced that she was "on hiatus" from pageantry, although she never returned to pageants.

Ericka was given the lead role of Charlotte Pinnizzotto-McNutt in *Fashionistas With Issues* without needing to audition. The series was filmed throughout 2005, and debuted on 7 April 2006 in Hartlania, 14 April 2006 in Kuboia, and 16 September 2006 in Salliland – for the Sallish dub of the series, Ericka reprised her role as Charlotte, as she already spoke fluent Sallish. On 23 November 2006, during the filming of an episode of the then-upcoming second season of the series, Ericka fell off a ledge and drowned. She survived but broke her collarbone while she was falling, and due to her trauma from the injury, she refused to return to filming and the second season of the series was canceled.

Additionally, Ericka starred as Dorothy Gale in the made-for-TV movie *A Trip to Oz*, an adaptation of *The Wizard of Oz* which portrays Dorothy as a seventeen-year-old who uses LSD to cope with the Great Depression. Said movie was filmed in mid-2006 and released on 26 January 2007. After Ericka's refusal to return to filming *Fashionistas with Issues* and the success of *A Trip to Oz*, she went on to appear in other PBV films.

Meanwhile, while *We Go* was released in May 2004, it was made and released solely to fulfil an agreement where Ericka had to release a studio album under PBV Records. Therefore, she started to plan her "proper debut" full studio album in February 2004, which was to be released under Oyea Records. Looking to transition from the teen pop of *Make Way* and *We Go*, she worked primarily with little-known, independent producers to create a pop album with R&B, hip-hop, soft rock and soul influences.

The lead single from the album, "Dream Sometimes", is a soul song that lyrically discusses hindrances to women achieving their dreams and was released on 26 April 2005. "Free", released on 4 October 2005, revolves around the story of a woman with a controlling lover and is juxtapositioned by its upbeat sound. The singles peaked at number two and number one respectively on the Kuboia Top 100, and due to Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" blocking "Dream Sometimes" from going to number one in Kuboia, Jetania and Salliland - alongside Carey's "Shake It Off"/"Get Your Number" double A-side release blocking "Free" in Salliland - a feud was staged between Ericka and Carey (who did not know it was staged) by Dominic Halls for shock value, with Ericka instructed to spread hurtful conspiracy theories about Carey.

The album, entitled *First Call for Global Success*, was released on 7 December 2005 domestically and 16 January 2006 internationally. It would go on to become her best-selling album worldwide, and spawned four more singles: "I'm So Fly", an airplay-only single released on 10 January 2006 in Kuboia; "More than Just a Story" which features Ericka's husband, then-boyfriend Spy Fandel and was released on 7 February 2006; "Down On It" which features Ericka's friends ZD and Tammy Poehler and was released on 4 July 2006; and "Troubled Beauty" which holds lyrical content personal to Ericka's life and was released on 8 August 2006. While "Down On It" topped the Kuboia Top 100, the album's other singles performed weakly.

In September 2006, Ericka announced a reissue of *First Call for Global Success*, to be released on 5 December of that year. However, its release was delayed due to Ericka's injuries, and was eventually released on 10 April 2007, entitled *First Call for Global Success: Bejewelled*. The album was promoted by the single "Supernatural", an R&B song about a man who has the "supernatural ability" to always satisfy the female protagonist when they have sex. The song was released to radio on 7 November 2006, and topped the Kuboia Top 100 in May 2007 once the CD single was released on 28 March 2007.

Ericka once again refused to embark on a world tour for *First Call for Global Success*, stating that she had "overworked herself and desperately needed a break". She revealed in a 2022 Instagram post that she was blackmailed into touring, and that it was only called off because she had a crying breakdown during a conference.

### 2007-2009: *Ericka*, *DuckDuckGoose*, Nickelodeon Salliland, and label troubles

In August 2006, alongside her friends – particularly longtime friend and labelmate Tammy Poehler – Ericka began to work on two projects, taking a break in November 2006 due to arm pain caused by her broken collarbone. By mid-2007, they had concurrently wrote and produced the majority of a studio album, and an entire extended play. The studio album focused on R&B and was influenced by the work of Mariah Carey and Mýa; the extended play belonged to no particular genre, but was influenced by several. Both featured content lyrically personal to Ericka's life, but upon submission to Oyea Records, some of the most personal songs were rejected.

*DuckDuckGoose*, the extended play, was released on 11 December 2007. The studio album, *Ericka*, was released on 22 January 2008. Its lead single, "Luv2H8U", was a pop-punk song inspired by Avril Lavigne, and was released as a single on 17 November 2007. Peaking within the top-five in many countries and at number-one in Ericka's native Kuboia, the song was a commercial success. The next single, "Red Lipstick" – an R&B song intended to encourage listeners to feel "confident and liberated" – broke sales records in Kuboia, Jetania and Salliland, and topped the charts in 18 countries. It holds the record for longest-running number-one in Salliland, spending 28 non-consecutive weeks at the top position. The album's next three singles, "Future", "I Want It (A Kiss)", and "Afterparty Girl" achieved only moderate success.

Meanwhile, when Nickelodeon Kuboia was purchased by PBV Sjajòqija, Ericka was called in to finally become a presenter. This was attributed to her appearing in *Fashionistas with Issues*, which was a co-production between PBV Hartlania and Nick Kuboia. However, due to a refocus of the budget, Ericka was placed on Nickelodeon Go ! in Salliland instead, as it was written on her resume that she could speak fluent Sallish, and she also had connections to Grozdana Stojanova. She made her debut on 23 March 2008 hosting the special Réleslita ne Nickelodeon Go ! with Marijana Ivanov, Majina Karolina, Matijas Mihajlovski, Neven Kólośik and Lukas Marano. The block officially debuted on 14 April 2008, with Ericka being granted permission to debut music videos on there (albeit in censored form). In a 2021 Instagram post, Ericka expressed that working on Nickelodeon was "a form of stress-relief" and "liberating".

Throughout 2007, 2008 and 2009, Ericka also continued to appear in PBV films. When starring in *Crushed*, she notably recorded a song – "Love Supplier" – alongside Mariah Carey, which symbolised the end of their (staged) feud.

However, due to Ericka's other projects, she got into trouble with Oyea Records. Because Dominic Halls believed Ericka was "losing focus" on her music career, he physically assaulted her, as revealed in a thread Ericka posted on her Twitter account in 2021. Additionally, 12 December 2008, Ericka – alongside Tammy Poehler, Viola and her (Ericka's) husband Spy Fandel – decided to protest over the art department at Oyea Records airbrushing out Ericka's abs and digitally enlarging her breasts, but were not listened to.

### 2009-2010: Migration to Favelopia and *The Streets*

Eventually, in February 2009, Ericka, Tammy, Viola and Spy were bought out of their record deal for €50 million. Upon reaching out to Assa Darson, they were signed to Favelopia for free. Ericka had most of her music rights transferred, while the others did not receive the same. Additionally, to avoid overworking herself, Ericka put her acting career on an infinite hiatus.

Merely two months into being signed to Favelopia, Ericka announced her first remix album, *Remix, Babe!*. With Ericka re-recording her vocals for all of the remixes, she described it as "a breath of fresh air", and the compilation was eventually released on 5 June 2009. "But My Heart Says Otherwise", the lead single from *Remix, Babe!* and sophomore single from Zara Dawson's *Sexy, Sweet, Sugar* was a duet between Ericka and Zara Dawson and additionally features a verse from Avril Lavigne. It was praised for its anti-sexual assault message and for its "innovative blend of hip-hop, R&B and pop-punk".

Later that year, on 5 November 2009, Favelopia surprise-released the lead single, "Talk That Talk" from Ericka's then-upcoming third studio album, via having the song's music video (albeit heavily censored) premiere on Nickelodeon Salliland at 7:25 CET. By the end of the day, the music video had allegedly been illegally uploaded to YouTube by hundreds of people, who recorded it directly from television. "Talk That Talk" was eventually released for digital download on Saturday, 7 November 2009, out of concerns that piracy would reduce sales. Once legally available domestically, "Talk That Talk" debuted at number two on the Kuboia Top 100 and peaked at number one.

Ericka eventually announced the album, *The Streets*, on 24 November 2009. While still belonging to the R&B genre, *The Streets* contains heavy electropop and grime influences and was Ericka's first album (not counting the *Bejewelled* reissue of *First Call for Global Success*, extended play *DuckDuckGoose* and remix album *Remix, Babe!*) to be released on CD with a Parental Advisory warning - explicit versions of *First Call for Global Success* and *Ericka* had been available only through digital retailers.

The album was supported by two more singles: "Club Shit" (referred to as "Clubbin'" in the edited version) has a theme of the loss of innocence but is an upbeat grime track featuring rapper Zara Dawson - the idea of juxtaposition was taken from Ericka's own song "Free" (2005). "Dancing in the Streets" was an electropop song about living life to the fullest, and its single release featured rapper Nicki Minaj; the 2011 reprint of *The Streets* replaced the original solo version with the single mix. Said singles were released on 19 January 2010 and 6 April 2010 respectively, and both peaked within the top ten in Kuboia. Additionally, due to its popularity amongst viewers of Nickelodeon Salliland, Ericka's 2003 song "Butterfly" (from *Make Way*) received a single release on 8 June 2010 to allow for individual purchase - it peaked at number twenty-seven on the Sjajòqija Top-100.

Ericka planned to embark on a tour to promote *The Streets*, but due to her ongoing struggles with depression, she announced its cancellation via her website on 14 June 2010. While "Here We Go Again" (a callback to 2003's "Here We Go") received an airplay-only single release in August 2010 anyway, the announcement also stated that no further singles would be released from the album. She also stopped filming presentation for Nickelodeon Salliland on 20 August 2010, and as Ericka's presence brought in viewers to the channel that would not otherwise be interested, in-vision presentation was discontinued entirely after 5 September 2010.

While Ericka had originally planned to not appear in public for "a long time" after she attempted to commit suicide, she wrote a song while hospitalised, which addressed her suicide attempt and tied it into the theme of Christmas. Self-producing the song, it was entitled "Baubles" and was released as a single on 7 December 2010. Ericka appeared at *[undecided]* to promote it, but the song did not chart at all despite selling well.

### 2011-2013: Venture into YouTube and *Queen of Kuboia*

Upon moving on from Nickelodeon Salliland and while recovering from her November 2010 suicide attempt, Ericka ventured into becoming a YouTuber. Her "comeback" video, "My Makeup Routine", accumulated twenty thousand viewers within an hour of it being posted on 4 April 2011. As the video was a combination of a vlog and a makeup tutorial, Ericka decided to theme her channel around those two things, before expanding into comedy from June 2011 onwards. By the end of the year, she had accumulated over 850,000 subscribers, and reached one million subscribers on 17 March 2012.

On 16 March 2012 at a strip mall in Fahrbahnin where Ericka was shopping for clothes, an unknown man opened fire and began to shoot several people. Ericka disappeared and many thought she got killed, but she surprise-released a single, "Don't Kiss Me", a month later on 17 April to let people know she was okay. The song debuted at number one on the Kuboia Top 100.

On 11 August 2012, Ericka was reported to have entered a coma, caused by oxygen loss during a botched breast enlargement operation. The coma lasted for 5 months, but she was still recovering until mid-2015. In November 2012, a song, "Still Got This" was released. "Still Got This" once again topped the Karuboia charts, and was billed as being "made with synthetically-produced vocals" which were "created through sampling old recordings of Ericka", while it was actually sung by an unknown ghost-singer. "Don't Kiss Me" and "Still Got This" were included in a compilation album, *Queen of Kuboia*, which featured previously unreleased material from 1999 until 2010 and was released to "honor her strength and bravery".

### 2015-2020: Coma recovery and *Songs of Darkness & Light*

On 8 March 2015, Ericka announced that she had fully recovered from being in a coma, and additionally became a talent agent at the Buch Talent Agency in September 2015 and returned to YouTube. She also released her memoir, *Little Miss Kuboia*, on 15 May 2018.

On 6 December 2019, Ericka surprise-released an extended play, *Songs of Darkness & Light*, which she self-described as "very personal". Uniquely, its two singles, "Wow" and "Mental Hospital", were released *after* their parent album was released, on 6 March 2020 and 15 May 2020 respectively.

### 2021-present: *Flower Child*

In January 2021, Ericka announced that she would soon be releasing new music. A single, "Eyes Wide Open", was released on 21 May 2021 and served as the lead single from her fourth studio album, *Flower Child*. 10 months later, "You Don't Love Me" was released on 25 March 2022 as the album's second single, with *Flower Child* released on 15 April 2022. Both of its singles topped the Kuboia Top 100.

## Musical style

Early in Ericka's career, her music was primarily targeted at teenagers and was often considered as bubblegum pop. With 2005's *First Call for Global Success*, Ericka's lyrical content began to mature, including several uses of profanity (although the CD releases of her albums were only available in censored form until her migration to Favelopia) and sexual references. From the 2007 reissue of said album, *First Call for Global Success: Bejewelled*, and her 2008 studio album *Ericka* onwards, the genre of her music shifted to contemporary R&B, and 2010's *The Streets* combined R&B with grime and electropop.

When recording an album, Ericka is known to insist on adding at least one "standout" track, which would sound significantly different compared to the rest of the tracks. For example, "Luv2H8U" is a pop-punk song in contrast of the R&B of the rest of its parent album, *Ericka*.

## Personal life

Ericka grew up in an unstable household - her father was committing adultery with his mistress before Ericka and Karina were even born, and their mother died when they were infants. Ericka has revealed that she was verbally harassed and sometimes physically beaten by her father and stepmother. This motivated her (Ericka) to move out at fourteen years old - while she legally still lived with Enerba, she resided in an apartment a block away alongside several roommates, notably Kuboian author Stefanee Louga.

### Relationship with Spy Fandel

Ericka started dating actor Spy Fandel in January 2003 after they were paired together at the gym - she described it as "something just lit up between [them]". Ericka's roommates and Spy's family were concerned about the two's relationship due to their age gap (Ericka was almost eighteen at the time, and Spy was only sixteen years old), and how they barely actually knew each other.

Ericka proposed to Spy on his twentieth birthday on 14 January 2007 and they planned to marry on 14 February that year. However, Ericka was still anxious after having broken her collarbone a few months prior, so they postponed the wedding - they eventually married on 16 June 2007 in Portugal. Throwing a fully outdoor wedding, Ericka appeared in a pink outfit which was intended to be a "sexy, fun and playful" take on World War One army commanders' outfits. Although she legally changed her last name to Fandel upon getting married, she kept

Ericka announced on 26 April 2022 that she was divorcing Spy due to his lack of physical affection toward her.

### Mental health

Ericka was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder in 2005, and as autistic in January 2020. She notably chose to celebrate her autism diagnosis with a party where she and her friends baked cake together, as she felt that it was "like an elaborate answer to a question [she] asked all [her] life."

## Discography

### Studio albums

* *We Go* (2004)
* *First Call for Global Success* (2005)
* *Ericka* (2008)
* *The Streets* (2010)
* *Flower Child* (2022)

### Extended plays

* *Make Way* (2003)
* *DuckDuckGoose* (2007)
* *Songs of Darkness & Light* (2019)

### Reissues

* *First Call for Global Success: Bejewelled* (2007)

### Soundtracks

* *A Trip to Oz: Music from the Motion Picture* (2007)
* *Les Fashionistas EP* (2012)

### Compilation albums

* *Little Miss Hitmaker* (2011)
* *Queen of Kuboia* (2013)