cindy terry maxine and dawn better known as nvogue burst onto the music scene in 1990 as
a modern-day american r b girl group inspired by those of the 50s and 60s however these ladies took
it to the next level where all four possessed a powerful one-two punch of stunning good looks plus
outstanding vocal abilities four girls hand-picked not just for their musical appeal but for their
marketing appeal as well they're not supposed to just sound good they're supposed to look good too
the prefab formula obviously works designer bags including in vogue are a mainstay on the charts
these days in fact pleasing the eye as well as the ear may well be what 90s music is all about yes
all four this wasn't the typical situation where there's one lead and three backup singers
here's the story of the funky divas who were born to sing hi everybody welcome back to my
channel this video is a retrospective on one of the best selling girl groups of
all time n vogue the group was put together by record production and songwriting duo denzel
foster and thomas mcelroy in oakland california after an extensive search and audition process
by august 1989 cindy herron terry ellis maxine jones and don robinson were chosen the name and
vogue secured and work began on their debut album born to sing was released on april 3rd 1990 the
album produced four major singles including lies you don't have to worry and don't go
but it was their first single hold on that put them on the map hold on also won them a
billboard music award soul train award and garner the group their first grammy award nomination
for best r b vocal performance by a duo or group after such a successful debut and vogue decided
to team back up with foster and mcelroy for their second album funky divas funky davis
we wanted to come up with a name that was really just different funky divas
what we did was we looked up the word diva and it meant female vocalist female lead vocalist
and theater and um we all sing lead and our music is much more funkier this time around so we said
okay great funky divas was released in the spring of 1992 and went on to become twice as successful
as born to sing five singles were released off the album and they all became top 40 hits on the
billboard hot 100. three of the five my lovin you're never gonna get it given him something
he can feel and free your mind made it into the top ten the album also won the group an
american music award three mtv video music awards and soul trains entertainer of the year award
and of course more grammy award nominations five to be exact they quickly followed up the success
of funky divas with a six song ep called runaway love released in the fall of 1993 it featured the
title track and subsequent hit runaway love and vogue was now everywhere they received multiple
endorsement deals and made many television appearances on some of the hottest shows
like in living color hanging with mr cooper and a different world around this time and vogue also
collaborated for the first time with the hip hop group sultan peppa for their smash hit what a man
three years later and vogue recorded don't let go love for the soundtrack to the motion picture
set it off it went on to become the group's biggest hit today going number one worldwide
and the catalyst for their next studio album even with all the success there were behind
the scenes issues that could not be ignored and were about to come to a head robinson made the
decision to leave the group when she wasn't able to come to an agreement on the group's
contract the move was so abrupt that the other three group members ended up having to re-record
nearly the entire album since it was almost completed at the time of robinson's departure
the aptly titled ev3 in reference to the quartet now becoming a trio was released in june 1997.
the album gave the group their highest first week numbers ever but it also received mixed
reviews from critics in regards to the overall production in addition to don't let go the album
also spawned two other singles whatever and two gone too long that did make it into the top 40.
after the poor performance of their fourth album masterpiece which also was a factor in being
dropped from their label maxine jones departed the group in 2001 to focus on her daughter
at this time singer songwriter amanda cole was brought in to join terry ellis and cindy herron
who wanted to continue performing however cole didn't last long and after only recording one
holiday album with the group she left due to feeling that she was unable to fully express
herself vocally or creatively her departure left a spot open for singer and actress
rona bennett who joined the group in 2003. cole and bennett along with original members
robinson and jones would float in and out of the group for years to come
the original lineup of envogue finally came together once again in 2008
to do a special girl group tribute at the bet awards with other acts such as swv and tlc
their performance blew everyone away and started talks of the group making their reunion
permanent after they got a few more performances under their belt an announcement was made about
their 20th anniversary world tour to commemorate the release of their debut album born to sing
the tour covered north america europe and japan the following year envo performed at the essence
music festival the largest african-american culture and music event in the united states
the comeback however was short-lived when the ladies could not reach an agreement
they were all satisfied with robinson left once again in 2010 followed by jones in 2011.
in 2012 robinson along with jones spoke to access hollywood about the divide in the group with her
and jones on one side and heron and ellis on the other directly related to contract disputes and
expectations placed on her that she just couldn't accept dawn you left the group in 1999 97 yeah now
this was really at the height of your it was it wasn't this yeah why did you leave there was a lot
going on it was like you know we weren't making the kind of money that i thought we should make as
the caliber of group that we were right you know two pennies per girl just to me was insane so you
didn't like that that was cut yes exactly yeah the deal really beginning the first deal first
album was you know you go in and you start and you don't know what kind of success you're going
to have and once you have that success and we were at three times platinum on the first album it was
time to go back in and renegotiate and we never did yeah right you didn't negotiate you didn't
no no so what we got on the first down when we got on the second album and the second album was
even bigger than the first and we're still getting the same money and it was ridiculous so i was like
you start waking up to see things you're looking at your royalty statements you don't understand
the language of the contract that you initially signed because we're not attorneys we don't
we don't go in knowing these things right away we did ask questions of our attorney but things get a
little confusing and by the time you wake up and understand what's going on you've already signed
the contract so were all the girls frustrated about the money no no it was me it was mainly dawn
and i yeah yeah you said cindy and terry were fine they were fine yeah they really were they didn't
want to negotiate right the producers had total control of the group they put all of us together
so they were in control and we did what they said goes for that whatever they said went during the
same interview they also announced that the two of them were forming their own group called heirs
to the throne but sadly the new group didn't last long and the following year they parted ways jones
along with two other singers decided to try again and created a new group called envogue to the max
heron and ellis ended up filing a lawsuit against jones for the unauthorized use of the name in
vogue and ultimately won since as holders of the group's llc they therefore had exclusive rights to
the name haran and ellis did an interview in 2013 where they addressed the matter
ultimately it boiled down to choice of management and we were in disagreement so maxine was being
upset decided to not come take any more shows and a lot of shows were offers were coming and
going and um she wanted us to first iron out the management issues but we couldn't get those ironed
out in the meantime we were still disagreeing about how to handle that part of the business she
um got in touch with dawn or vice versa but we believe she got in touch with dawn and then
they started promoting you know putting out there in the public that they were uniting to do another
invoke they they had a group called invo heirs to the throne and they started booking shows
well that's when the the trademark name became an issue because it's just not good business for
the brand uh to have two touring in vogues in the market and ultimately it was affecting us getting
work because the promoters were like how do i know who i'm getting and i don't i don't i don't want
to hire any of y'all and you know it was kind of like that so then that became an issue the name
you know the trademark name became an issue and that's how it became an issue in arbitration and
ultimately the arbitrator decided and the federal court confirmed it that we would um
issues between the ladies continued in 2014 when there was word of a lifetime movie being made
featuring in vogue robinson threatened to sue the network since neither she nor jones was part of it
and their marketing tactic was to make it appear to the public that they were heron and ellis were
the only original members included plus bennett robinson did an in-depth interview with uk-based
fubar radio in 2017 to promote new music she was working on but she also ended up speaking about
how what really happened between her and the other envo group members and why she had no choice but
to leave we were just in it and it was so big it happened so fast we were catching up to our
success so we hit the ground running but it was like catching up to everything we're what that we
have hits and it was so fast that everything took off we didn't really have a chance to recognize
the fact that we weren't getting paid well we only got uh two and this is going to be in my book as
well but we only got paid two pennies per record whoa sofa city is 16.99 we got two cents of that
two which would be two pence i guess two pennies yeah yeah two cents in america and it just blows
me away so we weren't we had the the success and the fame but we didn't have the monetary
the financial to to back that up where uh the record company had had that because of us he
was paid well um or i should say she because it was uh silvia roane was our head the head of the
label but she was you know on the higher up so she got paid well um and then you know the producers
got paid well our manager got paid well and every everyone but us i remember redlining what they
call red line so you go through your contract and you underline everything that you don't understand
and you ask questions uh when you're in the room with the attorney i asked all the questions um and
he explained it but it's kind of like i guess it's like being on the job for the first time
you get trained and within the first month you're still kind of learning things out well in our case
once you sign that contract on that first day you may ask questions but you still have to
sign that contract or you're not going to be in the group and once you sign you're in it
you can't change it so it's it's learning on the job but once you've signed the contract you're in
and you've signed for that amount you didn't realize it was not a good contract so it's a
little too late once you sign it but you're with the other three girls you don't want to be left
behind because you're asking too many questions again you're a woman you're asking too much and
after a while they had to get rid of me because i was the only one who was asking questions
in 2018 the trio released the album electric cafe their first album in 14 years featuring the single
rocket which gave them their first top 10 hit in 20 years in 2019 the group were also tapped
to perform at the grammy awards official after party celebration later on that same year for
the first time ever all the original members plus bennett came together for a one-time performance
to celebrate music industry executive sylvia rohn at the city of hope gala
today after winning countless awards and selling over 20 million albums and counting worldwide and
vogue is still in demand and actively touring and recording the year 2020 marks the 30-year
anniversary of their debut album bordesang and celebrate an extended anniversary edition of the
album including a newly remastered version of all the original tracks plus some new mixes is set to
be released on april 3rd the same day the original album was released in 1990 what's next for invoke
i hope i hope a lot more fun money money money money um
um and peace if we can get some peace throughout all the chaos i hope i hope that's next for invoke
i like the traveling part of the group because that's you know i i get a lot of opportunities
to see a lot of cities that i wouldn't see if i wasn't in the group so i love that part of it
and i love the entertainment part actually being on stage in front of an audience
i mean that was what we had in mind i think in the first place when we first started this group if we
had any kind of a vision it was of us out in front of people performing and enjoying what we're doing
and having them love our music hi i just want to take a few seconds to thank all of our fans
um and everybody that's all the djs every all the radio stations all the
everybody who supported us thank you so much thank you thank you thank you thank you
i'd like to say thank you to the fans and um come see our show it's going to be a good
one i just want to say thank you to radio and especially all of the fans that have continued
to support us and buy our records we love you thanks to all our fans thanks to radio for
playing our music thanks to atlantic records for supporting us and being behind us thanks
to our producers denny and tommy for just being sweethearts and our fathers in in time of need
which is constantly um thanks to david lumbar management thanks to sheila eldridge
thanks to nancy at a vision thanks thanks to everybody that helps making vogue with in focus