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| Judy Torres | |
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| Born | June 13, 1968 |
| Origin | Bronx, New York |
| Genres | Freestyle, Dance |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Labels | Profile, Mic-Mac Records |
Judith "Judy" Torres (born June 13, 1968 in The Bronx, New York City) is an American freestyle music artist and dance-pop singer.
Growing up in the Bronx, Torres was the oldest of five siblings. She attended St. Thomas Aquinas, and the all girls Aquinas High School. Torres scored club hits with songs such as "Please Stay Tonight," "Come into My Arms," "Love Story," "I Love You, Will You Love Me," and her first single "No Reason to Cry." A love-themed freestyle written by Mickey Garcia, "No Reason to Cry" peaked at #30 on the Billboard Hot Dance Charts. [1] Her debut album, Love Story, which was released in 1989 on Profile Records, is a freestyle collection, which included Ken Cedar-penned "Weakness of the Body", which was originally recorded by a teenage Mariah Carey. Her second album, My Soul, was released in 1992 and received good reviews by critics and fans alike. The album features such hits as attitudinal song "Every Little Lie," which tells a tale of an unfaithful man who, instead of ending the relationship amicably, decides to lead her on and she confronts him about it.
Torres previously had a regular Sunday night Freestyle show on New York's popular radio station WKTU 103.5 named "Freestyle Free for All." She is currently on-air at KTU from 3 pm to 8 pm on Sundays; she has been a performer and on-air personality at KTU for over 17 years. [2] [3]
In 2001, Torres scored a club hit with the sentimental love song "Back in Your Arms Again." It peaked at #7 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, her highest charting single yet.[ citation needed ] It was also featured in a remix version on the popular compilation series White Party. In 2004, she released her debut single on the label Robbins Entertainment that was titled "The Air I Breathe," which featured freestyle artist Collage. It is a Hi-NRG song produced by A-List producer Tony Moran. The single performed modestly on the charts, making the Top 40 of the Hot Dance Music/Club Play, peaking about No. 30. It was around this time at a live performance at the Manhattan venue The Star Lounge in Chelsea when New York City freestyle promoter and host Steve Sylvester introduced and officially dubbed Judy the ‘Queen Of Freestyle’, a moniker that has endured as her legacy in the freestyle genre.
In late 2005, Judy released the single "Faithfully." The song received airplay at dance stations. It is a cover of a 1983 hit by the band Journey. The single soon peaked at No. 1 as one of the requested songs on WKTU. Other Rhythmic/Dance format radio stations in the U.S. added the single from New York to their playlists. In August 2007, Torres returned to her Freestyle music roots with the single "I Don't." The song is a cover of Danielle Peck's Top 30 country hit written by Clay Mills/Peck/Burton Collins. In November 2008, Judy released "Hell, No," an anthem for abused women.
Judy Torres appears in the 2012 film Elliot Loves, in which she plays the role of Aunt Nani. [4]
On March 18, 2018, Torres announced her one-woman off Broadway debut, No Reason To Cry, with performances scheduled for June 22 and 23 in New York City. [5] Both initial performances sold out in under an hour resulting in a third show added. The third show scheduled for June 24, 2018 also sold out in under an hour. On April 20, 2018, four additional show dates were announced for July 4–7 in New York City.
Freestyle, or Latin freestyle is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the New York metropolitan area, Philadelphia, and Miami, primarily among Black, Afro Latino, Hispanic Americans and Italian Americans in the 1980s. It experienced its greatest popularity from the late 1980s until the early 1990s. A common theme of freestyle lyricism originated as heartbreak in an urban environment typified by New York City.
Exposé is an American freestyle vocal group formed in 1984 in Miami, Florida. The group primarily consisted of lead vocalists Jeanette Jurado, Ann Curless, and Gioia Bruno, who achieved much of their success between 1984 and 1993. They became the first group to attain four top-10 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 since their debut album, including their 1988 number-one single "Seasons Change." As an all-female group, Exposé’s seven consecutive Top 10 hits on the US Hot 100 landed them only behind The Supremes nine consecutive Top 10 hits for most Top 10 hits by an all-female group. In March 2015, Billboard magazine named the group the eighth most-successful girl group of all-time.
Brenda Shannon Greene, known professionally as Shannon, is an American singer and songwriter of freestyle and dance-pop music. She is best known for her single "Let the Music Play", which topped the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in 1983 and was certified gold.
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Just Whitney is the fifth studio album by American singer and actress Whitney Houston, released on November 27, 2002, by Arista Records. It was her first studio album to be released after her greatest hits compilation, Whitney: The Greatest Hits (2000), and the follow-up to her multi-platinum fourth studio album, My Love is Your Love (1998). Just Whitney was also Houston's first to be released after re-signing her contract with Arista in 2001 for $100 million - the largest recording contract for a female artist at the time.
WKTU is a rhythmic adult contemporary formatted radio station licensed to Lake Success, New York, a suburb of New York City. WKTU is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios at 125 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan; its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.
Evelyn "Champagne" King is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. She is best known for her hit disco single "Shame", which was released in 1977 during the height of disco's popularity. King had other hits from the early through the mid–1980s including; "I'm in Love" (1981), "Love Come Down" (1982) and "Your Personal Touch" (1985).
The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. was an American R&B and dance music group, assembled by Robert Clivillés and David Cole of C&C Music Factory, that was active in 1992. The group featured lead vocals by Michelle Visage, who was formerly a member of another Clivilles & Cole group, Seduction. Rounding out the quartet were Octavia Lambertis, Gary Michael Wade, and Jamal Alicea. The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. produced one hit single, "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day!", a pop/house song that sampled the 1978 Bill Withers song "Lovely Day". The song appeared on the 1992 film soundtrack The Bodyguard. It reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, and peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 16 in the UK Singles Chart in 1993, and number 90 in Australia on the ARIA Chart in 1993. The song "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day!" was the only song on the soundtrack performed by an artist other than Whitney Houston released as a single in the US.
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Jenna Drey is a multi-time Billboard Charting dance music artist, as well as American female singer-songwriter. Her biggest dance hit was "By The Way," which charted on Billboard Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart for 16 consecutive weeks peaking at #4 on April 7, 2007 and stayed on Billboard until May 19th, 2007. Her other Billboard charting songs included "Why Should I Believe You," and "Killin' Me." She was born in Los Angeles, California, and resides in Miami, Florida. She is a classically trained three-octave vocalist and pianist who studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts, in theory and composition.
Suzanne Casale Melone, better known by her stage name Lil Suzy, is an American freestyle/pop singer who was mainly active in the 1990's. Lil Suzy is best known for the singles "Take Me in Your Arms", "Promise Me", and "Can't Get You Out of My Mind".
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Wilma Cosmé, better known by her stage name Sa-Fire, is an American singer. Sa-Fire's Latin Freestyle music was able to break through into the broader pop music world. She has been featured in various magazines, such as Us Magazine, Billboard, Vogue, Elle, and most recently in the December 2011 issue of Signature Hits Magazine. She was the first Latina to appear on the cover of Spin Magazine. Sa-Fire has also appeared on television programs such as American Bandstand, The Pat Sajak Show, The Joan Rivers Show, Latin Connection, MTV International, The Party Machine with Nia Peeples, PM Magazine, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, TMZ, The View, MTV, and Telemundo. Sa-Fire has performed throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, the Caribbean, and South America. She has won numerous awards for her work, including six New York Music Awards, three Desi Awards, an ASCAP Award for writing "Thinking of You," and the LGBT Lifetime Achievement Award. She has sold over 1.9 million records.
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Andrea Monica Martin was an American R&B singer-songwriter and record producer.
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Mickey Garcia is an American record executive, songwriter, music producer, and DJ. He is known for founding the record label MicMac Records and for his work as a Mastermix DJ on 98.7 Kiss FM. He has written and produced over 100 songs since 1985 and is considered one of the founders of the freestyle dance genre, having produced, remixed, and written songs for artists such as Judy Torres, Cynthia, Johnny O, Tiana, Colonel Abrams and Menudo. He has been registered with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers since 1987 and has over 300 works in his catalog.
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