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Mario Mendell Winans ( Brown; born August 29, 1974) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer from South Carolina. An relative of the Winans family, he is best known for his 2004 single "I Don't Wanna Know" (featuring Enya and Sean Combs), which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.
Prior, Winans signed with Dallas Austin's Rowdy Records as an in-house producer during the early-1990s, and received his first major credits for his work on R. Kelly's self-titled second album (1995) and Pebbles' Straight from My Heart (1995). As a recording artist, he signed with Motown and released his debut studio album, Story of My Heart (1997) to commercial failure. The following year, he contributed to Diddy's 1998 single "Come with Me", and thereafter served as in-house talent for his Bad Boy Records production team, the Hitmen. While receiving further credits on commercially successful releases, he saw mainstream attention for his guest performance on Diddy's 2000 single "Best Friend" as well as his 2002 single "I Need a Girl (Part Two)," both of which entered the Billboard Hot 100βwith the latter peaking at number fourβand Winans signed with Bad Boy, an imprint of Universal Records as a solo act. Moreover, "I Don't Wanna Know" served as the lead single for his debut studio album Hurt No More (2004), which peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. In the following year, he co-wrote CeCe Winans's song "Pray", which won Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards.
Winans's recording work accompanies a career in production and songwriting, from which he has been credited on releases for artists including the Weeknd, Kanye West, the Notorious B.I.G., Ice Spice, Lil' Kim, Destiny's Child, Jennifer Lopez, Pusha T, Busta Rhymes, and Trey Songz, among others.
The first single "I Don't Wanna Know" was based on a sample of the Fugees' 1996 hit single "Ready or Not", which itself was based on a slowed-down sample of the instrumental track "Boadicea" by Enya from her 1987 self-titled album. Enya and her representatives said yes to Winans and P. Diddy for her approval of the sample. She even re-recorded Boadicea for the song, although Winans had no idea that the Fugees sample he had used was a sample itself. They even gave Enya herself credit for the single as "Mario Winans featuring P. Diddy and Enya". The song features a rap by P. Diddy. The song was released as a single in early 2004 and became a worldwide hit, reaching number 1 in Germany and the United Kingdom and on the rhythmic top 40 radio chart in the United States; to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the US R&B/Hip-Hop singles chart; and to number 3 on both the Australian and Norwegian singles charts. It also reached the top ten on a composite European singles chart.
Hurt No More was released on April 20, 2004, in the US and by early June 2004 had reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, number 2 on the Billboard 200, and number 3 on the UK Albums Chart.
The album's second single, "Never Really Was", used a sample of the orchestrated beginning of Madonna's 1986 hit "Papa Don't Preach" as its background music. However, the song failed to chart in North America. A remix version was released as a single featuring rapper Lil Flip.
The song "This Is the Thanks I Get" was stated to be the album's third and final single but no official release was set. The song went on to peak on the Billboard Bubbling Under R&B chart at number 12.
| + List of studio albums, with selected chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:11em;" | Title ! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:16em;" | Album details ! scope="col" colspan="10" | Peak chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Certification |
| + List of singles as lead artist, with selected chart positions and certifications, showing year released and album name ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Year ! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:16em;" | Title ! scope="col" colspan="4" | Peak chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:12em;" | Certifications ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Album |
| 1997 ! scope="row" | "Don't Know" | β | Story of My Heart | ||
| 2004 ! scope="row" | "I Don't Wanna Know" | 1 |
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| 2005 ! scope="row" | "This Is the Thanks I Get" | β | |||
| 2010 ! scope="row" | "Mine" | β |
| + List of singles as lead artist, with selected chart positions and certifications, showing year released and album name ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Year ! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:16em;" | Title ! scope="col" colspan="5" | Peak chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Certifications ! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Album |
| 1999 ! scope="row" | "Best Friends" (Puff Daddy featuring Mario Winans) | 24 | Forever | ||
| 2002 ! scope="row" | "I Need a Girl (Part Two)" (P. Diddy featuring Ginuwine, Loon) | 4 | We Invented the Remix | ||
| 2003 ! scope="row" | "Down 4 Me" (Loon featuring Mario Winans) | β | Loon | ||
| 2005 ! scope="row" | "You're the One" (Guerilla Black featuring Mario Winans) | β | Guerilla City | ||
| 2007 ! scope="row" | "Through the Pain (She Told Me)" (Sean Combs featuring Mario Winans) | 50 | Press Play | ||
| 2008 ! scope="row" | "Forever" (Timati featuring Mario Winans) | β | The Boss, SWAGG | ||
| 2009 ! scope="row" | "Dream" (Massiv featuring Mario Winans) | β | Meine Zeit | ||
| 2012 ! scope="row" | "I Need a Girl (Part Three)" (Kay One featuring Mario Winans) | β | Prince of Belvedair | ||
| 2017 ! scope="row" | "Type (E)" (Eyedi featuring Mario Winans) | β | Chapter 21 |
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