Thornetta Davis is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Detroit blues

Detroit blues

Detroit blues is blues music played by musicians resident in Detroit, Michigan, particularly that played in the 1940s and 1950s. Detroit blues originated when Delta blues performers migrated north from the Mississippi Delta and Memphis, Tennessee to work in Detroit's industrial plants in the 1920s...

 and rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 singer. She has opened for Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...

, Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight

Gladys Maria Knight , known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author...

, and Etta James

Etta James

Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...

, and sang backing vocals on Bob Seger

Bob Seger

Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...

's 1991 album, The Fire Inside

The Fire Inside

-Personnel:*Bob Seger - electric guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals, choir, chorus, harmony vocals*Kenny Aronoff - drums*Sweet Pea Atkinson - background vocals*Eddie Bayers - drums*Barry Beckett- synthesizer*Roy Bittan - piano*Sir Harry Bowens - background vocals...

. She also also worked with Kid Rock

Kid Rock

Robert James "Bob" Ritchie , known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and rapper with five Grammy Awards nominations...

 and Alberta Adams

Alberta Adams

Alberta Adams , is an American Detroit blues, jump blues, and Chicago blues singer. Adams was raised in Detroit, Michigan by a relative, and began performing as a tap dancer in the 1930s...

, and has released two full-length solo albums.

Biography

Davis was born in Detroit, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

After entering a local talent contest at the age of 15, Davis went on to form Chanteuse, a vocal group covering

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 old R&B hits

Hit record

A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...

. She was recruited as a backing vocalist

Backing vocalist

A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...

 by Lamonte Zodiac & the Love Signs, a local blues based outfit, who later became the Chisel Brothers. By 1991, Davis had moved on to back up singing for Big Chief, who recorded a couple of 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...

s for the Sub Pop

Sub Pop

Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...

 label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

. Following the group disbanding, Davis was signed to a solo recording contract

Recording contract

A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...

 with the same label, and released Sunday Morning Music (1996). One reviewer commented "Davis' singing is just wonderful - she's got a rich, warm voice". A song from the album, "Cry", was used in the "Isabella" episode of the HBO television drama, The Sopranos

The Sopranos

The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...

. Earlier in 1992, Davis had appeared at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival

Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival

On a warm night in August 1969, several thousand blues lovers gathered in a small athletic field in Ann Arbor, Michigan for the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival. By the time blues icon B.B. King took the stage to close the show, it was clear that something magical was happening in this southeast...

, and sang on stage with Bonnie Riatt and Katie Webster

Katie Webster

Katie Webster , born Kathryn Jewel Thorne, was an American boogie-woogie pianist.-Career:Webster was initially best known as a session musician behind Louisiana musicians on the Excello and Goldband record labels, such as Lightnin' Slim and Lonesome Sundown...

.

Her second solo album, Shout out to the Dus, was released in 1998. She also appeared at Lilith Fair

Lilith Fair

Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999, and was revived in the summer of 2010. It...

 the same year.

Between 1997 and 2003, Davis was a backing vocalist for Kid Rock

Kid Rock

Robert James "Bob" Ritchie , known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and rapper with five Grammy Awards nominations...

, appearing on his albums, Devil without a Cause

Devil Without a Cause

-Tracklisting for clean version:-Demos:-Samples:*"Bawitdaba"**"Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang*"Cowboy"**"Midnight Rider" by The Allman Brothers Band**"L.A...

(1998) and Kid Rock

Kid Rock (album)

Kid Rock is an eponymous album by Kid Rock, his sixth studio album overall, and his fourth Atlantic Records album. It was released in 2003. It was critically acclaimed by Rolling Stone Magazine, they named it one of the 50 Greatest Albums of 2003...

(2003), and she also sang on Kid Rock's single, "Wasting Time

Wasting Time (Kid Rock song)

"Wasting Time" was the final single from Kid Rock's album Devil Without a Cause. The song blended bouncy hip hop vocals over a bluesy riff and gospel vocals provided by Thornetta Davis. The song's bass line sampled Fleetwood Mac's classic "Second Hand News"....

". In 2000, Davis and Kid Rock opened the VH1

VH1

VH1 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...

 Vogue

Vogue (magazine)

Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...

Fashion Awards at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

.

Davis performed on the soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 for the 2001 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, Osmosis Jones

Osmosis Jones

Osmosis Jones is a 2001 live-action/animated comedy film directed by Tom Sito and Piet Kroon for the animated segments and the Farrelly brothers for the live-action segments...

. In addition, her voice was used on the television program

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

, Xena Warrior Princess. Davis has also covered

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 the blues standard, "I Just Want to Make Love to You

I Just Want to Make Love to You

In 1961, Etta James recorded the song for her debut album At Last!. Her rendition also served as the b-side to her hit "At Last." In 1996, Etta James' version became popular in the UK after featuring in a Diet Coke ad campaign. As a result, the single was re-released there...

".

She guested on Alberta Adams

Alberta Adams

Alberta Adams , is an American Detroit blues, jump blues, and Chicago blues singer. Adams was raised in Detroit, Michigan by a relative, and began performing as a tap dancer in the 1930s...

' 2008 album, Detroit is My Home.

Discography

Year	Title	Record label
1996	Sunday Morning Music	Sub Pop Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
1998	Shout out to the Dus	Sub Pop

Awards

At the Detroit Music Awards

Detroit Music Awards

The Detroit Music Awards was initially proposed in 1988. Presented by the Motor City Music Foundation, the multi-genre awards ceremony was established to bring recognition to Detroit area musicians. The first award show was held in 1992 at Detroit's Music Hall, and moved to the State Theatre in...

, Davis was voted Outstanding Blues Artist in 2004 and 2006, and Outstanding Blues/R&B Vocalist in 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2011.