Deborah Cox, who grew up in Toronto, first lent her voice to television commercials once she reached age twelve and, guided by her mother, also competed in multiple talent showcases. As a teenager she took the stage in nightclubs and simultaneously began crafting original songs alongside writer-producer Lascelles Stephens, who would later become her husband.
Shortly after finishing high school she attracted the attention of Arista Records president Clive Davis, echoing the path of Whitney Houston, to whom she is frequently likened vocally. Davis assembled leading R&B figures such as Babyface, Dallas Austin, and Keith Crouch to supply songs for her 1995 debut album, yet Cox herself collaborated with Austin and bassist Colin Wolfe on her breakthrough single “Sentimental” as well as three additional tracks.
The follow-up One Wish arrived in 1998 and yielded the R&B number-one single “We Can't Be Friends.” Her 2002 release The Morning After resonated most strongly in club settings, where “Absolutely Not,” “Mr. Lonely,” and “Play Your Part” each reached the top of the U.S. dance charts. A 2003 collection of remixes sustained listener interest until the more ambitious Destination Moon appeared in 2007; that album paid homage to Dinah Washington and featured a complete orchestra behind Cox.
Returning to contemporary R&B, she issued The Promise in 2008, enlisting production assistance from John Legend and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis; the project contained the dance-chart-topping “Beautiful U R” along with the R&B Top 30 entries “Did You Ever Love Me” and “Saying Goodbye.” She reclaimed the pinnacle of the dance chart in 2011 via “If It Wasn't for Love,” drawn from the Global Groove: Dance 5 compilation.
Cox ventured into musical theater in 2012, portraying Lucy in a revival of Frank Wildhorn’s Jekyll & Hyde that starred Constantine Maroulis in the title role. The production opened in La Mirada, California, traversed twenty North American cities, and reached Broadway in April 2013, where it ran for just over three weeks; the full cast, Cox included, performed on the Jekyll & Hyde: 2012 Concept Recording.
In January 2015 she supplied the singing voice for the Whitney Houston television biopic Whitney, directed by and starring Angela Bassett. Later that year the standalone ballad “More Than I Knew” registered on the R&B charts. Beginning in fall 2016 she joined the U.S. touring company of the 2012 musical The Bodyguard, adapted from the 1992 film that featured Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. In March 2017 she released the eight-track EP I Will Always Love You on the Broadway label, consisting entirely of Houston covers. One month afterward she contributed a version of “This Nearly Was Mine” from South Pacific to Billy Porter’s album The Soul of Richard Rodgers.
