Musicians - Jody Watley

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	Musicians - Jody Watley

Jody Watley is a Grammy Award-winning pop singer who was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 30, 1959. Her father was a minister/disc jockey. She has two children, Lauren and Arie, and was married to producer Andre Cymone.

To date, Jody Watley has sold over 20 million albums and singles worldwide. Along with Janet Jackson and Madonna, ranks as one of MTV Video Music Awards most nominated female artist ever, with ten nominations.

She ranks at the #144 most successful R&B artist of all time according to Billboard Magazine.

She has had an impact on classic R&B stars like Karyn White and TLC, as well as younger stars like Beyonce, Ciara, Fergie, Mya and Eric West.

Shalamar (The Early Years)

Watley got her start as a dancer on the hit TV show Soul Train at age fourteen. From 1977 to 1984, she was a singer in the R&B group Shalamar with Howard Hewett and Jeffrey Daniel. The group achieved a platinum-selling album, Friends, and the #1 R&B singles "A Night To Remember", "This Is For The Lover In You", and "The Second Time Around" in the U.S.; the group also scored numerous Top 10 hits on the UK charts. After several inner conflicts with the group, Watley left disgruntled. Post Shalamar, Jody took part in Bob Geldof's Band Aid alongside such stars as Sting, Bono from U2, George Michael Their charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" helped raise millions of dollars for famine relief in Ethiopia.

1987 - 1989

Jody Watley

Watley's solo debut album, Jody Watley, was released on March 31 1987 on MCA Records. The lead-off single, "Looking For A New Love", became a smash hit with an instant catch phrase ("Hasta La Vista ...Baby"), and was an influential slice of dance-pop with an original and trend-setting video. The single stayed at #2 on the Billboard's Hot 100 Single chart for four weeks, and sold over 750,000 copies in the US. The album spawned four more hits, "Don't You Want Me", "Still A Thrill", "Some Kind Of Lover" and "Most Of All," and spent three weeks at #1, eventually selling over two million copies in the US and nearly five million copies worldwide.

At the 30th Annual Grammy Awards, Watley was named Best New Artist, and was also nominated for Best R&B Vocal Performance - Female. That same year (1988), she was also nominated for four MTV Video Music Awards, three Soul Train Awards including Album of the Year and Single of the Year and an American Music Award.

Larger Than Life

Jody's second album, Larger Than Life, released on March 28 1989, solidified her as a pop icon in the music industry. The album sold over four million copies worldwide, and hit the Top 5 on the R&B Albums chart in America. The first single release, "Real Love", was a sizable hit that set a trend with its new style of bass-thumping dance. In America, it hit #1 on the R&B Singles chart, the Single Sales chart, and the Dance chart, while hitting #2 on the Pop chart; the single also went gold there for attaining sales of over 500,000 copies. The album contained two more Top 10 Pop, Dance and R&B hits: "Friends" (feauturing Eric B. & Rakim) and the ballad "Everything". The video for "Everything can be seen here: . The video for "Friends" can be seen here: .

During the summer of 1989, Watley's "Real Love" video made history when it was nominated for seven MTV Video Music Awards including Breakthrough Video, Best Art Direction, Best Dance Video, and Best Female Video at the 1989 award show. That record was held until Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson's video "Scream" received eleven VMA nominations in 1995. The next year, she was also nominated for two Soul Train Awards, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Female Artist, and a Narm Award for Best Selling R&B Female Album. While riding high on her Larger Than Life World Tour, a remix album, You Wanna Dance with Me?, was released in October 1989 and hit gold in America.

Into the 90s

Dance To Fitness

In 1990, Watley released a million-selling home video, Dance To Fitness, a first for a black woman. Jody continued to be visible appearing in ad campaigns for GAP, and fashion layouts in such high profile magazines as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Rolling Stone, and Essence. Jody Watley was also named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People of 1990. That year Watley broadened her musical horizons by contributing a jazzy rendition of "After You" to Red, Hot, & Blue, an AIDS-awareness charity recording by contemporary stars singing Cole Porter.

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