En Vogue

The original incarnation of En Vogue was conceptualised by the production duo of Denzil Foster and Tony McElroy, who envisioned the group as a modern take on the girl groups of the 1950’s and 60’s. Legends like The Shangri-Las, The Ronettes and Martha and the Vandella’s were their inspiration and in 1988, the duo held auditions to find female performers who had the right mix of intelligence, looks and talent to be true stars. As a result of those auditions they found Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones, and Dawn Robinson, and true to their inspirations, Foster and McElroy were originally going to feature Jones, Herron and Robinson as a trio.

However, Foster and McElroy still had a few singers left to audition, and Terry Ellis was one of the final candidates to do so. Although they thought they’d found their band, Foster and McElroy were so impressed that they felt compelled to add her to what would become the classic En Vogue line-up, making them a quartet. After first toying with the name For You, the nascent group then became Vogue. However, after finding that another group had claimed that name, they changed it to En Vogue and set to work on the band’s debut album in 1989. Recording began in August of the same year, and was released in April the following year, but few could possibly predict its success.

Their first single, “Hold On”, was released in February 1990 and was an enormous hit right off the bat, hitting number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and going into the top five of the U.K singles chart. This generated a mountain of hype surrounding their debut album, so “Born To Sing” was released in April 1990 and hit a respectable number 21 in the Billboard 200, eventually going platinum before the year was out. The band were massively acclaimed as well, with “Hold On” netting the band a Billboard Award and a Soul Train award for R&B Single of the year and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

The mid-90’s continued to be very, very kind to the group, with both their follow up records, 1992’s “Funky Divas”, and 1997’s “EV3” hitting the top twenty of the Billboard 200 and giving the band enormous hit singles in the form of “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”, and “Don’t Let Go (Love)”. However not all was well in the band, and Robinson left in 1997 after contractual disputes, and even after going platinum “EV3” under-performed commercially, and an entire tour was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. However, even at their lowest point they were still able to command some serious respect, going on to work with Stevie Wonder and Prince in 2005 alone.

Since then, the band have still been performing live as a trio, with Ellis and Herron from the original line-up being backed up by new recruit Rhona Bennett. All three of them are consummate professionals able to put on one hell of a show in their own right, and when they combine their efforts with En Vogue’s utterly astonishing back catalogue, it can make for one hell of a live show. They’re originals and inspirations in equal measure, and for that, they come highly recommended.