Debelah Laksh Morgan (born September 29, 1977) is an American singer and songwriter. Morgan is best known for her hit single " Dance with Me" off of her third studio album, which reached No. 8 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Early life and education

The owner of a five-octave vocal range, R&B singer Debelah Morgan wrote her first song at the age of eight, soon after forming her own girl's choir and serving as their arranger. At 15, she was teaching gospel choir at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...

, that same year winning Miss Teen Black Arizona honors; she would later win Miss Black Teen World. Morgan then relocated to Los Angeles, taking home a silver medal in the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&n ...

international music competition.

Career

She signed with Atlantic Records in 1994, and released her debut album '' Debelah'', which featured the singles "Take It Easy" and " Free", both of which charted on the R&B charts. A couple of years later, she moved to VAZ/

Motown Records Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''mot ...

and released her single "Yesterday" which was a Top 30 R&B hit, and landed on the Pop charts. However, while her second album, ''It's Not Over'', was released in Japan and a few other international territories, it was shelved in the United States in 1998. Two years later, she re-signed with Atlantic Records and released her biggest single to date, " Dance with Me", which peaked at number 8 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in addition to becoming a top-five dance hit. Her third studio album, '' Dance with Me'', soon followed in 2000 and peaked at number 35 on the ''Billboard''

Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart. Two additional singles ("I Remember" and "Close to You") were released from the album. Additionally, she contributed the song "Why Did You Have to Be" to the ''Osmosis Jones'' soundtrack and a cover of " Do You Remember?" to the Phil Collins tribute album, ''

Urban Renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

''. In 2005, she signed with the independent label RansomWear and released her fourth album ''Light at the End of the Tunnel'' (a gospel release), which was preceded by the single "Just as I Am". The album remains out of print and is not available on any digital services. In 2010, she released the live album ''Let the Worship in Champions Live 2'' with her Las Vegas church, of which she is their worship leader. The following year, she was slated to have shot a pilot for a reality series with R&B singers Shanice and Karyn White. In 2012 and 2013, she performed with the R&B group Rose Royce as their lead vocalist for several shows. In 2015, she collaborated with Shanice and

All-4-One All-4-One is an American male R&B and pop group best known for their hit singles " I Swear", "So Much in Love" and "I Can Love You Like That". The group is composed of Jamie Jones, Delious Kennedy, Alfred Nevarez, and Tony Borowiak, all from t ...

on the track "Go to Bed" off the latter's album ''Twenty''.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

music.msn.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Debelah 1977 births Living people American performers of Christian music Motown artists Singer-songwriters from Michigan 20th-century African-American women singers American women pop singers American dance musicians American women singer-songwriters American contemporary R&B singers Atlantic Records artists American musicians of Indian descent American women musicians of Indian descent 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American women singers 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers African-American songwriters 21st-century African-American women singers