Although Jessica Simpson dabbled in film, reality TV, and eventually contemporary country music during the 2000s, she is best known as a dance-pop vocalist who rose to fame in the late-'90s alongside such teenaged acts as 98°. Simpson was born and raised in Dallas, TX, where she began her performing career as a member of her church choir; at 12, she also auditioned unsuccessfully for The Mickey Mouse Club. While attending church camp the following summer, Simpson was discovered by the head of a tiny contemporary Christian music label and spent the next three years recording her debut album. However, the label folded before Simpson's record could be released, although a small pressing was eventually funded by her grandmother. Nevertheless, the teen became a hit on the Christian Youth Conference circuit, where she shared bills with Kirk Franklin, God's Property, and CeCe Winans.

Seeking to expand her popularity in the secular market, Simpson later signed to Sony and toured in support of the boy band sensation 98°. Teen pop was in full swing, and Simpson released her well-timed debut album, Sweet Kisses, in 1999. The album enjoyed smash singles with "I Wanna Love You Forever" and "I Think I'm in Love with You," the latter of which sampled the chord progression from John Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane." A second studio effort, Irresistible, appeared in spring 2001. Despite MTV's coverage of the album's title track, Simpson's sophomore effort didn't fare as well as her debut, which reached multi-platinum status. In 2002, Simpson married her longtime boyfriend, 98° crooner Nick Lachey, and went on to appear in several episodes of That '70s Show. However, she didn't become a bona fide celebrity until the summer of 2003, when the MTV-produced reality show Newlyweds began documenting the first year of Simpson's marriage to Lachey.