Ciara was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up in army bases in Germany, New York, California, Arizona and Nevada, since her father was in the United States Army. Her mother figured out that she wanted to pursue a career in music when she picked her up from daycare, and sung every song that was played on the radio. Ciara moved to Atlanta, Georgia when she was 8 years old. One day, when she was 14, she came home from school and told her mom that she would like to become a singer, but her mom wasn't sure if she really wanted to do this.

She has said that it was seeing a televised performance by Destiny's Child while staying home from school one day that inspired her to pursue a career in music. In her early teens she formed the goal to become a professional singer. She once was a cheerleader for her high school team, until she quit. She then joined a girl group called "Hearsay", worked on her songwriting, eventually left the group, got a publishing deal, and found a "musical soulmate" when she met producer Jazze Pha.

Ciara's debut single, Goodies, became a hit, reaching the top of the United States pop and R&B/hip-hop charts, and also charting in the United Kingdom (in January 2005, also reaching number one), Australia, Germany, Sweden, and New Zealand. With help from Jazze Pha, Sean Garrett, and Lil Jon, Ciara released her debut album, Goodies on September 28, 2004. It entered the Billboard 200 chart at #3, and sold over three million copies in the USA alone.

The second single, "1, 2 Step", featuring Missy Elliott, reached the top five in the U.S., peaking at #2 in early 2005. The single was released in the U.K. on April 11 the same year, and reached #3, benefiting from the fact that it was the first week that downloads were incorporated into the singles chart. Ciara charted one place higher than she would have done if downloads had not been included in the chart formula; she would have instead swapped places with Elvis Presley's re-issue of "The Wonder of You".

In May 2005, Ciara's third single, "Oh" featuring Ludacris, reached #2 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the U.K. charts. In July of 2005 she released her DVD of all three of her music videos, the makings of two of them, commentaries of two of them, behind the scenes footage of her rehearsals for the Soul Train Awards, and multi-angle shots of Goodies, entitled Goodies: The Videos & More.

Furthermore Ciara was featured on Missy Elliott's #3 hit "Lose Control", taken from the rapper's sixth album, The Cookbook. Because of this collaboration she can be considered a two-way artist, meaning she can both rap and sing equally well. In the fall of 2005, she was featured singing alongside past boyfriend, Bow Wow, on the second single from his third album Wanted entitled "Like You". The duet also reached a peak of #3. In the meantime her fourth single, "And I", was released and peaked at #96 which was relatively poor compared to the first three singles.

In the December of 2005 Ciara joined Gwen Stefani on her "Harajuku Lovers Tour", before going on tour with Bow Wow and Chris Brown for the "Holladay Jam" which stopped at cities like New York and Atlanta. On February 8, 2006 Ciara won her first Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video along with Missy Elliott. She also performed a duet with Maroon 5's Adam Levine during the show in tribute to the legendary R&B musician Sly Stone, a cover of Sly & the Family Stone's 1968 classic "Everyday People". Afterwards Ciara finished a MTV coming-of-age film, entitled All You've Got.

Ciara co-hosted 2006 ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards in Los Angeles on June 26th. She was nominated for the "Video of the Year" award with Missy Elliot and "Best Collaboration" with Bow Wow at the 2006 BET Awards, which she didn't attend.

It has been confirmed that Ciara is working with her "protege band" The Dynamics on their album slated for release on November 1st and is working as a writer and producer. Along with working with The Dynamics, she is working with the band's lead singer, Derek on his debut album in stores February 2007. Ciara went on TRL on August 10th and announced that her sophmore album will be out on November 14th and will be entitled The Evolution.