Jody Watley

Singer/songwriter, record producer, actor, and fashion icon Jody Vanessa Watley is a pop visionary who’s been blurring the lines of R&B, hip-hop, and electronic dance music since the late ‘70s. Born in 1959 in Chicago, Watley began performing with her godfather—rock 'n' roll trailblazer Jackie Wilson—at eight, later joining the cast of Soul Train as a teenager. In 1977, she was recruited by the show's host Don Cornelius and SOLAR Records chief Dick Griffey to form R&B-pop group Shalamar, which raced up the charts with singles “A Night to Remember” and “There It Is.” Watley eventually went solo and cultivated an edgy dance-pop sound on her 1987 self-titled debut and 1989's Larger Than Life, scoring No. 2 hits with “Looking for a New Love” and “Real Love,” as well as a Grammy for Best New Artist. Eager to expand her horizons, she launched Avitone Records in 1995 and released the soulful Flower three years later, followed by her electronic opus, Midnight Lounge. In 2014, Watley became the registered owner of Shalamar, rebranding the group as Shalamar Reloaded and touring consistently with the bands’ combined catalogs.