Karyn White

Contemporary pop/R&B singer Karyn White gained experience singing in choir and also in local talent shows and beauty pageants. She sang with local band Legacy and then toured with R&B vocalist O'Bryan in 1984. A lead vocal on instrumentalist Jeff Lorber's "Facts of Life" led to Warner Bros. signing her. The self-titled debut, released in 1988, featured "The Way You Love Me," "Secret Rendezvous" (#6 in the U.S., her biggest hit at the time) "Love Saw It," (a duet with Babyface) and "Superwoman"; the album sold two million copies. Her gold follow-up, Ritual of Love (1991), featured production by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. Karyn White later married Lewis and together they had a daughter, Ashley. Jam & Lewis also contributed production help on 1994's Make Him Do Right.White was nominated in the Best R&B/Urban Contemporary New Artist category for the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. She was also nominated for two Grammy Awards. She became the first female artist to have their first three solo releases hit #1 on the R&B charts.

Her follow-up album was Ritual of Love in 1991. It had songs produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and featured the hit single "Romantic", which hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Other singles from the album include "The Way I Feel About You" (U.S. #12), "Walkin' the Dog," and "Do Unto Me" (the last two did not chart). The photographer and director Matthew Rolston directed the video for the hit single Romantic. Michael Walls, who is credited as stylist on the Ritual of Love album, worked closely with Karyn White on the look for the Ritual of Love cover and 3 of the music videos released for the album. Walls brainstomed the idea for the Chanel inspired simple pearls and black dress used on the album cover, the french maid look and multiple wardrobe changes for video of "The Way I feel About You", and the colorful "Walkin' the Dog" video, which was based on a scene from the film Sweet Charity.

Her next album was Make Him Do Right in 1994. The album did not sell particularly well, although she did chart with the singles "Hungah" and the Babyface-penned "Can I Stay With You", which became her final U.S. R&B Top 10 hit in early 1995. "I'd Rather Be Alone", her last chart single to date, peaked at #50 on the same chart later that year. White left Warner Bros. Records afterwards, and dropped out of the music public eye for many years to start a family. In 2006 she recorded a new album, titled Sista Sista; which was slated for release in 2006, but has since been shelved. Two tracks from the shelved album, "All I Do" and "Disconnected", were later released on the Best-Of compilation Superwoman: The Best. Currently, White plans to release her first album after a seventeen-year break, Carpe Diem, in early 2012.

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