FanMail

FanMail is the third studio album by American girl group TLC, released on February 23, 1999, by LaFace and Arista Records. The album title is a tribute to TLC's fans who sent them fan mail during their hiatus. FanMail debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 318,000 copies in its first week of release, and spent five weeks at number one. To promote the album, TLC embarked on their first concert tour titled the FanMail Tour. FanMail received acclaim from most music critics, who praised its innovative sound and themes. The album received eight nominations at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, including one for Album of the Year, winning three. It has been certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and has sold 10 million copies worldwide. FanMail is TLC's second-best-selling album after their 1994 studio album CrazySexyCool. Released following a period of uncertainty marked by financial difficulties and disputes with their record label and among group members, FanMail reaffirmed TLC's commercial viability. The album's incorporation of technological themes and futuristic production has been credited with helping to reshape the sound of R&B at the turn of the 21st century. TLC were among the first mainstream artists to aestheticize the internet in their music, and FanMail is regarded as an early precursor to the direct artist-to-fan interaction that would later become common in the era of social media. It was the group's final album released in Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes' lifetime before she died on April 25, 2002, as she was killed in a car crash prior to the release of their fourth studio album 3D (2002).