Brenda K. Starr

Born in New York and raised there as the daughter of Spiral Starecase member Harvey Kaye, Brenda K. Starr appeared in the 1984 hip-hop film Beat Street before entering the music business. She launched her recording career as a freestyle and pop vocalist in the mid-'80s with the Mirage label, issuing her debut album I Want Your Love in 1985. Arthur Baker handled production on that project, which earned notable club exposure yet yielded no pop-chart traction until she switched to MCA. At that label the Eumir Deodato-produced ballad "I Still Believe" climbed to number 13, while the uptempo single "What You See Is What You Get" reached number 24. Among the background vocalists on her sessions was a young Mariah Carey, whose demo Starr later passed to Columbia's Tommy Mottola. Her 1991 Epic album failed to connect, leading to several years outside the music industry until she reemerged in the late 1990s. A version of "Herida" topped Billboard's Latin Tropical/Salsa Airplay chart in 1997 and opened the door to additional salsa-oriented albums through the 2000s, including the Latin Grammy-nominated Temptation.