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THE RECORD (May 11, 1998) pg.9

“Quincy Jones’ Qwest results in a Canadian R&B discovery”

LOS ANGELES: R&B soulstress Tamia was just 17 when she performed 
at a house party for Luther Vandross, hosted by her manager 
Brenda Richie.  One of the guests, Quincy Jones, took note of the 
Windsor, Ont. native.  Now, at 21, her eponymous debut is on the 
music mogul’s Qwest label, distributed by Warner Music Canada.

	Tamia’s album entered The Record’s top retail albums chart 
at #63 last week.  While the up-temp single Imagination has yet 
to chart, the first-rate video which Much Music put into medium 
rotation four weeks before the album’s April 14 release has 
helped propel sales.

	“It’s moving up the rhythmic urban chart in the U.S.,” 
notes Warner Bros. Records marketing manager Ron Morse, “but we 
don’t have that format here in Canada.  Radio support is 
building.  We’re trying to work it to top 40.  We’re telling the 
story that it’s not Can-con, but she is Canadian.”

	More importantly, she’s a Canadian R&B artist who got a 
break.  Richie was co-hosting a benefit concert in Aspen, Col. 
four years ago at which Tamia performed.  “She had the voice of 
an angel,” recalls the Los Angeles-based Richie, who wasn’t 
managing anybody at the time, but used to handle her ex-husband 
Lionel’s career.  “Immediately, you just know upon listening to 
her that she was going places.”

	Richie saw Tamia on several occasions after that in L.A. and 
agreed to manage her when the teenage singer asked.  Seeing a 
young woman with a sense of what she wanted both artistically and 
career-wise impressed Richie, who says, “She was also a very 
quick study.”

	Tamia didn’t return to Windsor.  Instead she remained in 
L.A., where she performed at the fortuitous Vandross bash.

	A while later, the 1993 recipient of YTV’s Vocal Achievement 
Award accepted the 1994 Steve Ross Music Scholarship at the 
American Academy of Achievement’s Annual Salute to Excellence in 
Las Vegas.

	“Then Quincy had a song on his album that I think he had 
tried six or seven singers for,” recalls Richie, “and they 
couldn’t do it.  He asked Tamia and she did it.”

	You Put A Move On My Heart, a top 10 Billboard R&B hit, 
earned Tamia her first Grammy nomination for bet female vocal 
performance.  Her second nomination, for best R&B performance by 
a duo or group with vocals, was a result of her pairing with 
Babyface on Jones’ next single, Slow Jams.  Her third nomination, 
for best pop collaboration, was for her team work with Brandy, 
Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan on Missing You.  Not bad for a gal 
without an album of her own.

	That was quickly rectified when Jones stepped in and signed 
Tamia to his new Qwest label, bringing in various top producers 
and songwriters to aid in the making of her debut album.  “Tamia 
did not think that she was a songwriter,” says Richie, “but put 
her with other people who write and she was able to do that.”

	It will be a while before Tamia, who was just in Toronto for 
a promotional trip, returns to her native land.  After a heavy 
schedule of promotion in the U.S., she’ll head to Japan and 
Europe.

	“We are trying to get her back up here to do 
performances,” says Morse.  “But her schedule in the U.S. is 
pretty busy.  We were lucky we got her here on the tip of big 
things in the U.S.”

	--Karen Bliss