Crystal Waters

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Crystal Waters (born October 10, 1964 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American dance music singer and songwriter. She is the great-niece of legendary singer/actress Ethel Waters.

Career

Waters enjoyed three major pop–dance hits in the early/mid '90s: "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (1991), "100% Pure Love" (1994) and "Say... If You Feel Alright" (1997).

She is also the singer in "Destination Calabria", a 2007 hit release by Alex Gaudino, a mashup which uses vocals from her 2004 "Destination Unknown" and instrumental from Rune RK's 2003 "Calabria".

Waters lived in New Jersey, but later moved to Washington, D.C., to study computer science at Howard University. After graduation, she worked as a computer technician at the Washington, D.C., Parole Board^[1]. She took her demo tape of "Gypsy Woman" to a Music Business Forum, and the only people to call her about it were a trio of club disc jockeys who formed the Basement Boys.

"Gypsy Woman" became a worldwide hit, memorable for its la da dee la dee da refrain and its often sampled keyboard riff. The track reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and found even more success in Europe, reaching #2 on the UK Singles Chart. The track was also parodied in the memorable sketch "My Songs Are Mindless" (Performed by Kim Wayans) on the television series In Living Color in 1991. Wayans skewered the song's simple rhythm and melody by singing "Hey look at that it's Fred and the Flintstones! That's a song now, I got a song now: Yabba Dabba Doo Yabba Dabba Da, Yabba Dabba Doo Yabba Dabba Da...." The clip from the comedy show would sometimes show up mixed into Waters' own composition at Gay clubs with video screens. Scarcely a year after its release, a new version turned up on the Red Hot + Dance AIDS fundraiser disc (1992, distributed by Sony Music), gaining its remixer (Joey Negro) his first real American exposure.

Despite some additional contributions by remixer Steve "Silk" Hurley, Waters' next releases were promoted only in the dance music markets, but she made an unexpected mainstream comeback in 1994 when "100% Pure Love" hit #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the longest charting singles on the Hot 100 at 45 weeks ("Gypsy Woman" remained on the chart for an average 16 weeks).

Her 1997, self-titled album included another Top 40 US hit, "Say...If You Feel Alright," but mainstream success in the US has since eluded her. However, Waters remains successful on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play and the Hot Dance Airplay charts with recent hits like "Come On Down" and "My Time," both of which peaked at #1, the latter making top 40 in the UK. "Gypsy Woman"'s keyboard-chord was recently sampled on rapper T.I.'s 2006 mega-hit "Why You Wanna."

In 2007 Waters embarked on a world tour; performing sold out shows in Russia, Egypt, the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, and Dubai, among other locations. In 2007 her track "Destination Calabria" hit the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart.

In May 2008, Waters issued the single "Dancefloor", giving Waters yet another Top 10 Dance hit. "Never Enough" hit #20 on the US Dance Charts in February 2009.

Awards and nominations

Discography

Singles

Notes

• "I Got My Education" by Uncanny Alliance is a response track to "Gypsy Woman".
• "Makin' Happy" climbed to #55 on the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart.
• "Come On Down" has its backing track and chorus built around a sample of the theme music to the game show The Price Is Right.
• "Gypsy Woman" was sampled on American rapper T.I.'s 2006 single "Why You Wanna," off his very successful album King and also on Styles P's song "Favourite Drug" on his Time is Money album.

• Though its US Release was in mid-1994, "What I Need" did not chart there until early 1995.

See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

References

External links

• Official website