Seduction (band)
Encyclopedia
Seduction was a female dance-pop
, urban contemporary
, house music
, and freestyle
trio
from New York
assembled and produced
by Robert Clivillés and David Cole (later of C+C Music Factory
), consisting of members April Harris (born 25 March 1967), Michelle Visage
(20 September 1968) , and Idalis DeLeon
(born 15 June 1966).
Originally intended as a studio
project, and prior to any assemblage of the aforementioned trio, the first track produced, "Seduction" (later re-named "Seduction's Theme"), featured vocals by Carol Cooper, and was released to dance clubs. The second single
"(You're My One and Only) True Love" featured uncredited lead vocals by Martha Wash
. Against its producers' expectations, it ended up becoming a hit. Envisioning a potential hit phenomenon, Cole and Clivillés set to the task of assembling a group of girls who displayed talent, sex appeal, and multiformat potential. Visage, DeLeon and Harris were chosen and assembled for the recording
of the album
Nothing Matters Without Love and subsequent singles. Their biggest hit came in early 1990 with "Two to Make It Right
", a #2 pop hit. In mid-1990 DeLeon left the group and was replaced by Sinoa Loren (born 6 December 1966). After a pair of hits with this line-up, the group disbanded in 1991.
Dance-pop
Dance-pop is dance-oriented pop music that originated in the early 1980s. Developing from post-disco, it is generally up-tempo music intended for clubs with the intention of being danceable or merely dancey...
, urban contemporary
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
, house music
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
, and freestyle
Freestyle music
Freestyle or Latin freestyle, sometimes referred to as Latin hip hop, is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 1980s. Mostly popular during the mid 80s to the early 90s...
trio
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
from New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
assembled and produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Robert Clivillés and David Cole (later of C+C Music Factory
C+C Music Factory
C+C Music Factory is a dance-pop and hip hop group formed in 1989 by David Cole and Robert Clivillés which stopped recording 1996, following Cole's death...
), consisting of members April Harris (born 25 March 1967), Michelle Visage
Michelle Visage
Michelle Visage is a singer and TV/radio host.-Career:Michelle was discovered in 1989 when she was asked to join Seduction, an R&B and dance vocal trio assembled by Robert Clivilles and David Cole of C&C Music Factory fame...
(20 September 1968) , and Idalis DeLeon
Idalis DeLeon
Idalis DeLeón is an American actress, singer, and television host.-Biography:DeLeón, who is of Puerto Rican ancestry, first began her career as a member of the girl group Seduction who scored a top ten hit "Two to Make it Right" in 1990. From 1994 to 1997, she was a MTV VJ...
(born 15 June 1966).
Originally intended as a studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
project, and prior to any assemblage of the aforementioned trio, the first track produced, "Seduction" (later re-named "Seduction's Theme"), featured vocals by Carol Cooper, and was released to dance clubs. The second single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"(You're My One and Only) True Love" featured uncredited lead vocals by Martha Wash
Martha Wash
Martha Wash is an American R&B, Pop, Soul, House singer/songwriter known for her distinctive and powerful voice.-Early career:...
. Against its producers' expectations, it ended up becoming a hit. Envisioning a potential hit phenomenon, Cole and Clivillés set to the task of assembling a group of girls who displayed talent, sex appeal, and multiformat potential. Visage, DeLeon and Harris were chosen and assembled for the recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
of the album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Nothing Matters Without Love and subsequent singles. Their biggest hit came in early 1990 with "Two to Make It Right
Two to Make It Right
"Two to Make It Right" is the title of a popular song by the American girl group Seduction. It appears on the group's debut album Nothing Matters Without Love...
", a #2 pop hit. In mid-1990 DeLeon left the group and was replaced by Sinoa Loren (born 6 December 1966). After a pair of hits with this line-up, the group disbanded in 1991.
Alumni and further works
- DeLeon went on to become a prominent MTV VJ and Hollywood Reporter MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
ExtraExtraExtra, extras or xtra may refer to:* Extra , a performer who appears in a nonspeaking capacity* Extra , a term in the sport of cricket* Extra , a brand of chewing gum...
Access HollywoodAccess HollywoodAccess Hollywood is a weekday television entertainment news program covering events and celebrities in the entertainment industry. It was created by former Entertainment Tonight executive producer Jim Van Messel, and is currently directed by Robert Silverstein. In previous years, Doug Dougherty and...
VJ as well as a SAG Nominated actress on TV shows such as Living SingleLiving SingleLiving Single is an American television sitcom which aired for five seasons on the Fox network from August 29, 1993 to January 1, 1998. The show centered on the lives of six friends who share personal and professional experiences while living in a Brooklyn brownstone.Throughout its run, Living...
, Six Feet Under, Nip Tuck, Burn Notice and feature films like "Running Scared" and "Vicious Circle". iDalis Media.com is her entertainment firm she runs today coaching clients to brand their act through precision on camera performance coaching and career brand media strategy.
- Michelle Visage performed guest vocals on the single "Crash" by Freestyle act TKATKATKA was a Latin Freestyle trio that was prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s, mainly in New York City and Miami, Florida. Its members were Tony Ortiz, Louis "Kayel" Sharpe, and Alejandro "Aby" Escoto later replaced by Angel "Love" Vasquez. The acronym TKA represents their collective initials...
, as well as the single "It's Gonna Be a Lovely DayLovely Day (song)"Lovely Day" is a song by American soul and R&B singer Bill Withers. Published in 1977 , the song was written by Withers and Skip Scarborough and appears on Withers' 1978 album Menagerie....
" by C+C Music Factory alter-ego The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M.The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M.The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. was an American 1990s R&B and dance music group, assembled by Robert Clivillés and David Cole of C&C Music Factory. The group featured lead vocals by Michelle Visage, who was formerly a member of another Clivilles & Cole group, Seduction...
from the soundtrack to the Whitney HoustonWhitney HoustonWhitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
film The BodyguardThe BodyguardThe Bodyguard is a 1992 American romantic-thriller film starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. Costner stars as a former Secret Service Agent turned bodyguard who is hired to protect Houston's character, a music star, from an unknown stalker. Lawrence Kasdan wrote the film in the 1970s,...
. Visage later co-hosted a VH1VH1VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
talk show show, the The RuPaul ShowThe RuPaul ShowThe RuPaul Show is an American talk/variety show that premiered on VH1 in 1996. Hosted by drag performer, RuPaul, the show had many famous musical guests and was notable as being one of the first national television programs in the United States hosted by an openly gay host...
with RuPaulRuPaulRuPaul Andre Charles , best known as simply RuPaul, is an American actor, drag queen, model, author, and singer-songwriter, who first became widely known in the 1990s when he appeared in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. Previously, he was a fixture on the Atlanta...
, and eventually went on to become a popular on-air personality for New York radio station WKTUWKTUWKTU is a radio station based in New York City that plays an upbeat, gold-based CHR format. The station's broadcast transmitter is located on the top of the Empire State Building and its city of license is Lake Success, New York, with offices formerly in the "Newport" section of Jersey City, New...
. In 2005, Visage joined the morning show "The Morning Mix" on WNEW-FM "Mix 102.7" FM (now WWFS). She is currently the host of Sunny 104.3 Morning Show on WEAT-FM in West Palm Beach, FloridaFloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and since January 2011, she now is the third permanent panel judge on the popular reality televisionReality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series RuPaul's Drag RaceRuPaul's Drag RaceRuPaul's Drag Race is an American reality television series produced by World of Wonder for Logo. RuPaul plays host, mentor and inspiration for this series, which details RuPaul's search for "America's next drag superstar."...
which airs on the LogoLogo (TV channel)Logo is an American digital cable television channel owned by Viacom's MTV Networks division. Launched in June 2005, the channel's programs are geared towards the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community...
cable televisionCable televisionCable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
network.
- April Harris earned a Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of ArtsA Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree from Howard UniversityHoward UniversityHoward University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
’s School of Communication. She has performed principal roles in the following plays: Dreamgirls (National Tour), Wicked Ways (National Tour), Smokey Joe’s Café (National Tour), Footloose (National Tour), Ain’t Misbehavin' (National Tour), The Wiz, and Medea and Beehive. She toured internationally with her all-female band (Koffee), being featured on the BET Soundstage Tour, Blackapalooza Tour, and the U2/Kelis European Tour. In 2004, April established AVH Entertainment, LLC, a music and television production company. She owns the rights to the name Seduction and reassembled the group with two new members, Maria Flora and Eunice Quiñones, (Miss New York Latina 2006), and released an album of new material, Feel Brand New, through AVH Entertainment (her own label) in 2005. Current projects in development include a television show geared towards teens.
- Singer and actress Sinoa Loren went on to perform for two movie soundtracks on Universal: Carlito's Way (1993) and The Shadow (1994). Her songs were Pillow Talk, a remake of the classic 1970s hit, and Some Kind of Mystery (written by Diane WarrenDiane WarrenDiane Eve Warren , is a US songwriter. Her songs have received six Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, including one win and seven Grammy Award nominations, including one win. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001...
and produced by Jellybean Benitez). Sinoa has also written and recorded several dance songs played throughout South America and Mexico. She is currently working with SKY, an original group performing a tribute to Seduction, along with original songs. Along with Sinoa, SKY is made up of Karmine Alers and Yassmin AlersYassmin AlersYassmin Alers is an American actress.Alers was born in Spanish Harlem as the middle child of a close-knit family of five children. She was a swing/understudy in the original broadway cast of Jonathan Larson's Rent on Broadway, and played Mimi in the Benny tour company of the show...
.
Albums
- 1989 Nothing Matters Without LoveNothing Matters Without Love (album)Nothing Matters Without Love was the debut album released by the dance-R&B group Seduction. Released in October of 1989, the album was a modest hit, reaching #36 on the Billboard pop albums chart and #28 on the Billboard R&B albums chart...
#36 U.S. - 1990 The Re-Mixes
- 2005 Feel Brand New
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales threshold) |
Album | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US Dan |
US R&B Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
US AC |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
||||||||||
| 1988 | "Seduction" | — | 17 | — | — | 87 | Nothing Matters Without Love | |||||||
| 1989 | "(You're My One and Only) True Love" | 23 | 3 | 56 | — | 92 | ||||||||
| "Two to Make It Right Two to Make It Right "Two to Make It Right" is the title of a popular song by the American girl group Seduction. It appears on the group's debut album Nothing Matters Without Love... " |
2 | 1 | — | — | 79 |
|
||||||||
| 1990 | "Heartbeat Heartbeat (Taana Gardner song) "Heartbeat" is a 1981 dance single by Taana Gardner. It was arranged by Dennis Weeden and Kenton Nix, and released by West End Records, with the more famous club mix created by Larry Levan... " |
13 | 2 | 21 | — | 75 | ||||||||
| "Could This Be Love" | 11 | — | 38 | 21 | — | |||||||||
| "Breakdown" | 82 | 4 | — | — | — | |||||||||
| "Groove Me" | — | 4 | — | — | — | The Re-Mixes | ||||||||
| 2004 | "Feel Brand New" | — | 28 | — | — | — | Feel Brand New | |||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
Other charted songs
| Year | Single | Peak positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Dan |
|||
| 1990 | "Free Your Body" | 2 | Non-album song |