Tara Kemp is an American singer best known for her two Billboard ''Hot 100'' top-ten

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

s in 1991: " Hold You Tight" and "

Piece of My Heart "Piece of My Heart" is a romantic soul love song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. Franklin's single peaked in December 1967 at number 10 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles char ...

Career

Kemp signed to

Giant Records In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

in 1990, a new sublabel of the

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...

music label. In January 1991, her self-titled album and debut single " Hold You Tight" were released. "Hold You Tight" became a hit, peaking at number three on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

; the song was certified

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by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

and ranked as the twenty-fifth best-selling single of 1991. The song also peaked at No. 69 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. In May, Kemp released her second single "

", which reached number seven on the ''Hot 100'' in July and was the eighty-fourth best-selling single of the year. A third single " Too Much" was released, but stalled at number 95. Following the release of her debut album, Giant began to interfere with Kemp's recording of her sophomore album. Wanting to sign to

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

– where most of the people who had signed her to Giant had moved to – Kemp asked to be released from her contract. However, Atlantic did not sign her. Kemp released two more songs: in 1993, "Action Speaks Louder Than Words" was featured on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

for the

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

television series, ''

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''; and "Come Correct", which was released independently in 1994. Owing to issues in her personal life, she left the music industry soon after. In 2013, Kemp launched a Facebook page and YouTube channel containing new photography, uploads of vintage material, and teasers to a new track called "Water." In 2014 and 2015, Kemp revealed in interviews that she was working on new material. In April 2016, Kemp released "Paris in Spring" (featuring

D'wayne Wiggins D'wayne Patrice Wiggins (born February 14, 1961) is an American singer, guitarist, and record producer best known as the founding member of the 1990s soul/R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné! Early life Wiggins was born in Oakland, California; spec ...

), her first single in 22 years, as a

charity single A charity record or charity single is a song released by musicians with most or all proceeds raised going to a dedicated foundation or charity. George Harrison's " Bangla Desh" single in 1971 is commonly acknowledged as the first ever purpose-mad ...

to benefit victims of the

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. In January 2021, Kemp revealed plans to independently release her shelved sophomore album and remastered versions of her 1991 singles. She is working with

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based Shakir Entertainment.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

External links

* Tara Kempat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kemp, Tara Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers American dance musicians American women pop singers American contemporary R&B singers Giant Records (Warner) artists Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area People from Livermore, California Dance-pop musicians New jack swing musicians