Donna Allen | |
---|---|
Born | Tampa, Florida | May 15, 1958
Origin | Key West, Florida, U.S. |
Genres | R&B, new jack swing, dance-pop, freestyle |
Years active | 1986–1999, 2010–present |
Website | donnaallen.com |
Donna Allen (born May 15, 1958) is an American dance-pop singer, born in Key West, Florida, and raised in Tampa. At one point a cheerleader for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, she got her start performing in the bands Hi-Octane, Trama and Maxx. During her tenure with MAXX she was courted by Alan Walden (Capricorn Records/Hustler Productions) before launching a solo career. [1] She also sang backup on tour for Gloria Estefan for nine years.
Allen's first disc was the Lou Pace-produced 1986 album, Perfect Timing, and over the next few years she launched several hits on the US Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play chart.
She had two top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart with "Serious" (1987, #8) and "Joy and Pain" (1989, #10). [2] 1995's "Real", her last US chart hit, was taken from the soundtrack to the Sylvester Stallone film The Specialist .
The UK dance act Strike used her chorus hook line from "Serious", as the basis for their club hit, "U Sure Do" released in 1994. Allen provided the vocals to Soulsearcher's 2003 single "Feelin' Love". "He Is the Joy" appeared on the Precious soundtrack (2009).
In 2013, she made an attempted comeback by competing in Season 5 of NBC's singing competition, The Voice . On the inaugural day of the season, broadcast on September 23, 2013, she performed Joe Cocker's song "You Are So Beautiful" with two of the four judges, namely Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera, hitting their "I Want You" button and turning their chairs. Allen opted to be in Team Adam for the season. [3] During the Battle Rounds, she was defeated by fellow Team Adam teammate Tessanne Chin, the eventual winner of Season 5.
Stage | Song | Original Artist | Date | Order | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Blind Audition | "You Are So Beautiful" | Joe Cocker | September 23, 2013 | 1.3 | Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera turned Joined Team Adam |
Battle Rounds | "Next to Me" (vs. Tessanne Chin) | Emeli Sandé | October 14, 2013 | 7.5 | Defeated |
Year | Title | Label | Chart positions | |
---|---|---|---|---|
US [4] [5] | US R&B [5] | |||
1986 | Perfect Timing | 21 Records | 133 | 33 |
1988 | Heaven on Earth | Oceana Records | — | 28 |
"—" denotes the release did not chart. |
Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [5] [6] | US R&B [5] [6] | US Dance [5] [6] | US Dance Sales [5] | UK [2] [7] | |||
1986 | "Serious" | 21 | 5 | — | 17 | 8 | Perfect Timing |
1987 | "Satisfied" | — | 14 | 33 | — | 92 | |
"Sweet Somebody" | — | 55 | 48 | — | — | ||
1988 | "Heaven on Earth" | — | 19 | — | — | — | Heaven on Earth |
1989 | "Joy and Pain" | — | 3 | — | 25 | 10 | |
"Can We Talk?" | — | 43 | — | — | 80 | ||
1995 | "Real" | — | — | 23 | — | 34 | — |
1997 | "Saturday" (East 57th Street featuring Donna Allen) | — | — | — | — | 29 | — |
1999 | "He Is the Joy" | — | — | — | — | — | — |
2010 | "He's Got the Power" | — | — | — | — | — | — |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. |
Donna Adrian Gaines, known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music gained a global following.
Irene Cara Escalera was an American singer and actress who rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film Fame, and for recording the film's title song "Fame", which reached No. 1 in several countries. In 1983, Cara co-wrote and sang the song "Flashdance... What a Feeling", for which she shared an Academy Award for Best Original Song and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1984.
Sheena Shirley Easton is a Scottish singer and actress who achieved recognition in an episode of the reality television series The Big Time: Pop Singer, which recorded her attempts to gain a record deal and her eventual signing with the EMI label. Her first two singles, "Modern Girl" and "9 to 5" both entered the top ten of the UK Singles Chart simultaneously. She became one of the most successful British female recording artists of the 1980s. Easton became the first and only recording artist in Billboard history to have a top five hit on each of Billboard's primary singles charts: "Morning Train ", "We've Got Tonight" with Kenny Rogers and "Sugar Walls".
Kim Carnes is an American singer and songwriter born and raised in Los Angeles. She began her career as a songwriter in the 1960s, writing for other artists while performing in local clubs and working as a session background singer with the famed Water Sisters. After she signed her first publishing deal with Jimmy Bowen, she released her debut album Rest on Me in 1971. Carnes' self-titled second album primarily contained self-penned songs, including her first charting single "You're a Part of Me", which reached No. 35 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1975. In the following year, Carnes released Sailin', which featured "Love Comes from Unexpected Places". The song won the American Song Festival and the award for Best Composition at the Tokyo Song Festival in 1976.
Maxx is a German Eurodance project that was internationally successful in the mid-90s with the hit singles "Get-A-Way", "No More " and "You Can Get It". The name 'Maxx' is a special acronym for Maximum Xstasy.
Sonia Marina Clarke, better known by her stage name Sonique, is a British singer, musician and DJ. She came to public attention as a member of dance band S'Express during the early 1990s, but achieved greater success as a solo artist in the early-to mid 2000s. During this period, she achieved UK top 20 hits with "It Feels So Good", "Sky", "I Put a Spell on You" and "Can't Make Up My Mind", and won the 2001 BRIT Award for British female solo artist.
Donna Lewis is a Welsh singer. She is best known for the 1996 pop hit single "I Love You Always Forever", which peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart, and also peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, and the United States. In the US, the song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks, having been held off the summit by the Bayside Boys Remix of "Macarena" by Los Del Rio. It also became the highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 by a Welsh artist since Bonnie Tyler topped the chart with "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1983. Additionally, the single is tied third among songs with the longest runs at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and at second for most weeks at number one on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart. Lewis teamed up with Richard Marx on the 1997 adult contemporary hit "At the Beginning" for the Anastasia soundtrack. In 1997, Lewis was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Female Artist.
Judy Cheeks is an American singer. In the 1970s and 1980s, she recorded as a soul and R&B singer, before releasing more dance-oriented music in the 1990s. Cheeks performed with Ike & Tina Turner as an Ikette. She also worked as a backing vocalist for various artists such as Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, Amanda Lear, and David Knopfler.
"Last Dance" is a song by American singer Donna Summer from the soundtrack album to the 1978 film Thank God It's Friday. It was written by Paul Jabara, co-produced by Summer's regular collaborator Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, and mixed by Grammy Award-winning producer Stephen Short, whose backing vocals are featured in the song.
Adassa is an American urban reggaeton singer and songwriter. She is known for her Latin-infused dance-pop music and has released several albums throughout her career, including "Kamasutra" and "Adassa." Her music career spans from urban reggaeton to Christian music.
The discography of American singer Donna Summer includes 17 studio albums and 89 singles, plus several other releases. Her first single, "Wassermann", a German version of the song "Aquarius" from the musical Hair, was released in Europe in 1968 under her maiden name, Donna Gaines. She would become known as Donna Summer from 1974 onwards. Her first full-length album under that name was Lady of the Night.
"And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" is a torch song from the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, with lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Henry Krieger. In the context of the musical, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" is sung by the character Effie White, a singer with the girl group The Dreams, to her manager, Curtis Taylor Jr., whose romantic and professional relationship with Effie is ending. The lyrics to "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going", often considered the show's signature tune, describe Effie's love for Curtis, both strongly devoted and defiant. She refuses to let Curtis leave her behind, and boldly proclaims to him, "I'm staying and you ... you're gonna love me."
"Love to Love You Baby" is a song by American singer Donna Summer from her second studio album, Love to Love You Baby (1975). Produced by Pete Bellotte, and written by Italian musician Giorgio Moroder, Summer, and Bellotte, the song was first released as a single in the Netherlands in June 1975 as "Love to Love You" and then released worldwide in November 1975 as "Love to Love You Baby". It became one of the first disco hits to be released in an extended form.
"Melody of Love (Wanna Be Loved)" is a song by American singer and songwriter Donna Summer. It was released on October 31, 1994 by Mercury Records and Casablanca Records as a new track and the lead single for her 1994 hits compilation album, Endless Summer: Donna Summer's Greatest Hits. The song was written by Summer, David Cole, Robert Clivillés and Joe Carrano, and produced by Summer and Welcome Productions. It just missed the top 20 in the United Kingdom and was a top-40 hit in Belgium. The song was formed with several remixes and was her tenth number one hit on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. In Australia, the single peaked at number 79 in December 1994. It was awarded the ASCAP Dance Song of the Year prize in 1996.
Antonia Christina Basilotta, better known by her stage name Toni Basil, is an American singer, choreographer, dancer, actress, and director. Her song "Mickey" topped the charts in the US, Canada and Australia and hit the top ten in several other countries.
American singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles has released seven studio albums, two demo albums, four live albums, two soundtrack albums, six extended plays, twenty-one singles and thirteen music videos. After graduating from University of California, Los Angeles, Bareilles independently released her debut album Careful Confessions in January 2004. In 2005, music executive Charlie Walk signed her to a record deal with Epic Records. A year after, she began to work with Eric Rosse on her second studio album, Little Voice, which featured six re-recorded songs of the twelve that were originally on Careful Confessions, plus six additional songs. Little Voice was released in July 2007 and entered the Billboard 200 chart in the United States at number 45, which marked as her chart debut. The album became a commercial success, it peaked on the chart at number 7 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of one million copies in the United States, subsequently becoming her most successful studio album to date. Its lead single, "Love Song", became a worldwide hit, charting at the top-ten in many regions. Epic released two additional singles, "Bottle It Up" and "Gravity", from Little Voice.
Stephanie Beatriz Bischoff Alvizuri is an Argentinian-American actress. She is known for playing Detective Rosa Diaz in the Fox/NBC comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013–2021), Quiet in the Peacock action comedy series Twisted Metal (2023–present), and Carla in the musical film In the Heights (2021), and voicing Mirabel Madrigal in the Disney film Encanto (2021) and Vaggie in the adult animated musical series Hazbin Hotel (2024–present).
American actress and singer Idina Menzel has released seven studio albums, fifteen singles and two live albums. She is dubbed as the "Streisand of her generation" by various media outlets. She became the first artist with both a Billboard Top 10 hit and a Tony Award for acting with her global smash hit "Let It Go". Her album "Holiday Wishes" remains her highest charting album on Billboard 200, peaking at #6 and also debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Holiday Albums Chart. Let It Go stormed the charts and became a pop culture phenomenon. It became the fifth biggest-selling song of 2014, selling 10.9 million worldwide via IFPI. Menzel was Billboard's 48th top performing artist of 2014 and she also the 9th Top Hot 100 artist of the same year. Let It Go is certified 8× Platinum in the US, according to RIAA and has sold a million units in South Korea and United Kingdom.
Omar Samuel Pasley, better known by his stage name OMI, is a Jamaican singer. He is best known for his 2012 single "Cheerleader", the remixed version of which was a worldwide hit. He is currently signed to Ultra Music, a part of Sony Music, and released his debut album Me 4 U in 2015.
Miisa-Leena Päällysaho, better known as Miisa, was a Finnish Eurodance artist who released two albums in the 1990s.