Discover

'Regina Belle ' (born July 17, 1963) is Grammy award winning singer who sings Adult Contemporary, Quiet Storm, Smooth Jazz, Urban contemporary, and Contemporary R&B songs.

Contents

Early life

Career

Discography

Albums

Singles

Awards & Nominations

References

Sources

Early life

Regina Belle was born in Englewood, New Jersey. Her early musical experience was in gospel music. She also studied trombone, tuba and steel drums and graduated from Dwight Morrow High School.^[1] In college at Rutgers University, she studied opera and jazz.
She met the Manhattans and began working as their opening act, recorded the duet "Where Did We Go Wrong" with them, and earned her a record deal with Columbia Records.

Career

In 1987, she released her debut album All By Myself which featured the hit single "Show Me The Way" which reached #2 on the R&B charts. In 1989, Belle released her second album, "Stay With Me". Going gold, the album was packed with several strong and catchy songs. "Baby Come To Me", the album's first single, topped the R&B charts at #1 and was followed by "What Goes Around" which reached #3. The album featured two additional popular singles, "This Is Love" which reached #7 and "Make It Like It Was" which was another #1 single on the R&B charts and #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Belle recorded a duet in 1991 with singing superstar Johnny Mathis, "Better Together" which appeared on his album ''Better Together: The Duet Album''. Continuing her success with duets, Belle teamed up with Peabo Bryson for the song "A Whole New World" from the Aladdin Soundtrack. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, went gold and won the Grammy Award in 1993 for "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
During the same year, Belle released her third album, "Passion". Going Gold, the album featured the previously mentioned "A Whole New World", "Dream In Colour and "If I Could" which reached #9 on the R&B charts. Both did well on the A/C chart. A fourth single, "The Deeper I Love" was released but it did not chart.
After a five-year hiatus without any original content released, Belle put out the album "Believe in Me" in 1998. It was much more of a commercial Urban contemporary album than any of her other albums. Although the album had two hit singles, the lead single being "I've Had Enough" (it was also remixed into a sizable dance music hit), the album didn't met MCA Records sales goal. She was dropped by MCA Record in 1999. In 2001, she released the album "This Is Regina!" which featured the sensual hit single, "Ooh Boy". Another single not lifted from the album, "This Is Regina!," went gold.
Belle is still active in the music industry and in 2004, released the album, "Lazy Afternoon". In 2005, she had several successful concerts and appearances singing both new songs and older favorites.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	The Billboard 200	Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
1987	All By Myself	85	14
1989	Stay With Me	63	1
1993	Passion	63	13
1995	Reachin' Back	115	18
1997		-	-
1998	Believe In Me	-	42
2001	This Is Regina!	-	61
2004	Lazy Afternoon	-	58
2006	Love Songs	-	-

Singles

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Single
! US Pop
! US R&B
|-
| 1987
| Show Me The Way
| 68
| 2
|-
| 1987
| So Many Tears
| -
| 11
|-
| 1988
| Without You {Leonard VI Theme} {with Peabo Bryson)
| -
| -
|-
| 1988
| How Could You Do It To Me
| -
| 21
|-
| 1989
| Baby Come To Me
| 60
| 1
|-
| 1989
| Make It Like It Was
| 43
| 1
|-
| 1990
| This Is Love
| -
| 7
|-
| 1990
| What Goes Around
| -
| 3
|-
| 1993
| A Whole New World (Aladdin's Theme) (with Peabo Bryson)
| 1
| 21
|-
| 1993
| If I could
| 52
| 9
|-
| 1993
| Dream In Color
| -
| 63
|-
| 1995
| Love T.K.O.
| -
| 29
|-
| 2001
| Oooh Boy
| -
| 63
|-
| 2004
| For the Love of You
| -
| 60
|}

Awards & Nominations

★ 1994 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, winner, with Peabo Bryson, for "A Whole New World (Aladdin's Theme)"

References

1. Beckerman, Jim. "For Regina Belle, time for a special payback", ''The Record (Bergen County)'', October 31, 2004. Accessed July 9, 2007. "It was at Englewood's Mount Calvary Baptist Church, and then Paterson's Friendship Baptist Church (presided over by Belle's uncle, the Rev. Fred Belle), that Regina Belle began attracting attention with her vocal abilities. She sang her first solo in church at age 8; by the time she graduated from Dwight Morrow High School at age 17, she was the church's star singer."

Sources

★ Richard De La Font Booking Agency , accessed 16 Oct 2005.

★ Soul Tracks: “Regina Belle Biography”, accessed 16 Oct 2005.

★ VH1.com: “Regina Belle”, accessed 16 Oct 2005.

★ R&B Haven: “Regina Belle”, accessed 08 Sep 2006.