112 formed in Atlanta, Georgia and was initially a trio comprised of Daron Jones, Michael Keith and Reginald Finley. While the guys were in high school, they called themselves Forte and performed in talent shows at churc...

Alexander O'Neal was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1953. At the age of 20, O'Neal moved to Minneapolis where he played in a variety of musical groups. Alexander O'Neal performed in the groups The Mystics, Enterprise, and Flyte Tyme. ...

The group BeBe & CeCe Winans is comprised of siblings, Benjamin and Priscilla Winans. The two started as a group when the television show “The PTL Club” asked the two to be background singers on the show. They lived on t...

Bell Biv DeVoe formed from the members Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe of the group New Edition. The group began to form after Bobby Brown left New Edition and became a separate entity after the Heart Break t...

Bobby Brown was born in 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts. He started singing with schoolmates Michael Bivins and Ricky Bell in 1980 and eventually, they brought Ralph Tresvant and Ronnie DeVoe into their group. The group be...

Brian McKnight was born in Buffalo, New York. He had strong musical roots, singing in the church choir and acting as a bandleader in high school. While in his early teens, he began penning instrumentals. He formed his ow...

The group Damian Dame was comprised of Debra Jean 'Deah Dame' Hurd, born in 1958 and Bruce Edward 'Damian' Broadus, born in 1966. The duo was the first act signed to LaFace Records. Within the group, Damian handled most ...

Donnell Jones was the son of a pastor and spent a lot of his childhood acting out in church. At eleven, his mother bought him a keyboard and he taught himself to play. With his father's influence as a gospel singer, Jone...

Howard Hewett was born in 1955 in Akron, Ohio. He moved to Los Angeles, California when he reached his teens and worked as a dancer on Soul Train. Alongside fellow Soul Train dancers Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel, Hewet...

Jason Weaver was born on July 18, 1970 in Chicago, Illinois. From childhood, he was immersed at music as his mother, Kitty Haywood worked as a studio singer.

While Weaver has worked as a singer, he's had his most success in act...

Jesse Powell was born in 1971 in Gary, Indiana. He grew up honing his musical abilities by singing with his family and in local talent shows. In 1993, Powell met producer Carl Roland in Kansas City and they traveled to L...

Keith Sweat was born in 1961 in Harlem, New York. In 1975, Sweat got his start in music with a Harlem band called 'Jamilah.' The group toured the Tri-State area and helped hone Sweat's singing abilities.

Signed...

Kevon Edmonds was born in Indianapolis, Indiana and is the brother of famous producer/songwriter/singer Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds. Growing up, Kevon Edmonds shied away from the church choir, prefering to sing for his ow...

Mariah Carey was born in Long Island, New York to the former opera singer Patricia Hickey and Alfred Roy Carey. Her mother is Irish American and her father is of African-American and Venezuelan descent. The third and you...

Mary J Blige was born in 1971 in the Bronx, New York. Mary's father left her family when she was only four years old, leaving her, her sister and their mother to fend for themselves. The family moved to Yonkers a few yea...

Maxwell is an R&B neo-soul singer who was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1973. Maxwell is actually the singer's middle name, but he has kept his first and last name private in order to protect his family. His father died ...

Mint Condition formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the late 1980s. Comprised of members singer Stokley Wiliams, bassist Ricky Kinchen, guitarist Homer O'Dell, pianist Larry Waddell and keyboardist Jeffrey Allen, the grou...

New Edition started in 1978 and originally comprised of Bobby Brown, Michael Bivins and Ricky Bell. The guys lived in the Orchard Park housing projects in Boston, Massachusetts. The group met a local manager named Brook ...

Robert Sylvester Kelly was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1967. He was the eldest of four children and lived in the Southside Projects. In high school, Kelly performed in talent shows and had his dreams reinforced by a high school music te...

Ready For The World was an R&B/funk band from Flint, Michigan. The group formed in 1982 and was comprised of vocalist Melvin Riley, guitarist Gordon Strozier, keyboardist Gregory Potts, percussionist Willie Triplett, bassist John Eaton a...

Helen Folasade Adu, known as Sade (pronounced shar-day), was born in January 1959 in Ibadan, Nigeria. Her father, Bisi Adu, was a Nigerian lecturer in economics and her mother, Anee Hayes, was an English nurse. When Sa...

Stephanie Mills was born on March 22, 1957 in Brooklyn, New York. Her music career got off to an early start as Mills starred in plays and won Amateur Night at the Apollo by the time she was 11.

In 1973, Mills ...

Toni Braxton was born in 1966 in Severn, Maryland. She is the oldest of six children and went to Glen Burnie High School. Her father was a clergyman, and as such, Braxton's first experience was singing with a church choi...

Tony! Toni! Tone! formed in Oakland, California and was composed of D'Wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Wiggins (Rapael Saadiq) on lead vocals and bass and cousin Timothy Christian on drums.

Tracie Spencer was born in 1976 in Waterloo, Iowa. She got her start in 1986 when she won the CBS television show Star Search. In the show, she sang Whitney Houston's 'How Will I Know.'

After winning the contes...

Vanessa Williams was born in 1963 in Millwood, New York. In a prophetic manner, her parents put 'Here she is: Miss America' on her birth announcement. Both of her parents were music teachers with advanced degrees and her...