Shanice

In 1991 Shanice reached her commercial peak with the upbeat single "I Love Your Smile," a worldwide Top Ten pop entry that brought her a Grammy nomination. Earlier known for her stint on the music-themed television program Kids Incorporated and a pair of Top Ten R&B/hip-hop chart successes, the lilting soprano and songwriter later amassed 16 additional charting singles during the 1990s and 2000s, while her albums Inner Child (1991) and Shanice (1999) both attained gold status. After issuing her independent fifth album Every Woman Dreams (2006), she has continued to release tracks such as "He Won't" (2019) and "Take Care of U" (2022) and has maintained a television presence, most visibly in the reality series Flex & Shanice.

Shanice began singing before she turned one, and her early childhood took her from her birthplace of Pittsburgh to Los Angeles alongside her mother and aunt. At eight she scatted alongside jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald in a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial, and soon afterward secured a part on Kids Incorporated that carried through the show's first season. Signed to A&M Records at age eleven, she made her recording debut as a young teenager with the 1987 album Discovery. Every track on that project was co-written with producer Bryan Loren, and its opening two singles, "(Baby Tell Me)" "Can You Dance" and "No 1/2 Steppin'," each climbed to number six on the R&B/hip-hop chart, with the first of those also crossing over to reach number 50 on the Hot 100. In between her own releases, Shanice appeared on Kiara's number-two R&B/hip-hop hit "This Time."

Shanice did not deliver a follow-up to her early promise until 1991, when she signed with Motown and teamed with Narada Michael Walden plus a small circle of co-writers. The resulting single "I Love Your Smile" topped the R&B/hip-hop chart, rose to number two on the Hot 100, and performed strongly abroad, placing inside the Top Ten in the U.K. and Germany among other territories, with Branford Marsalis supplying its saxophone solo. Parent album Inner Child enjoyed comparable success, further driven by follow-up singles "I'm Cryin'" (number 11 R&B/hip-hop) and "Silent Prayer" (number four R&B/hip-hop, number 31 pop), the latter a duet with Johnny Gill. On the same record Shanice paid direct tribute to her influences through a rendition of Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You." She next lent her voice to several film soundtracks, charting with "Don't Wanna Love You" from Boomerang, the Diane Warren/David Foster composition "Saving Forever for You" (a number-four pop hit tied to Beverly Hills, 90210), and "It's for You" (a number-14 R&B/hip-hop single featured in The Meteor Man). During this period Inner Child earned gold certification, while "I Love Your Smile" secured Shanice a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female.

Shanice's third album, 21...Ways to Grow, differed from its predecessors by drawing on a broad roster of writers and producers, most of whom contributed to only a single track. Issued in 1994, the project yielded four charting singles, led by "Somewhere" and the whistle-register showcase "Turn Down the Lights," both Top 30 R&B/hip-hop entries that respectively involved Christopher Williams and Babyface. Other participants included Jermaine Dupri, Chris Stokes, and Tim & Bob. Still sought after for cinematic projects, Shanice appeared on two contrasting 1995 soundtracks, covering Gladys Knight & the Pips' "If I Were Your Woman" for Panther and, with Jon Secada, performing the original love theme for Disney's Pocahontas, "If I Never Knew You," whose soundtrack reached number one on the Billboard 200.

Throughout the latter half of the 1990s Shanice supplied background vocals for multiple Babyface productions, including recordings by Toni Braxton, Usher, and Whitney Houston. She also joined Babyface and L.A. Reid's LaFace roster, resurfacing as a lead artist in 1999 with the self-titled Shanice. Its strongest single emerged from a collaboration with Warryn Campbell titled "When I Close My Eyes," while the Babyface-assisted "Fall for You" gained recognition as a standout album track. After stepping away for an extended period to focus on family, Shanice returned independently in 2006 with Every Woman Dreams, which featured fellow Kids Incorporated alum Rahsaan Patterson and Sheila E. along with another version of Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You." Recording became more sporadic in the following decade; she issued "Gotta Blame Me" and "We Can Fly" in 2014, the same year her family reality series Flex & Shanice debuted, and she added further singles "Breakdown" and "He Won't" before releasing "Take Care of U" in 2022.