En Vogue

1988–91: Early beginnings and Born to Sing

Assembled in Oakland, California in July 1989, En Vogue launched with original members Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones, Dawn Robinson and Terry Ellis. The inspiration for the group came when production duo of Foster and McElroy envisioned a modern-day girl group in the tradition of the 1950s/1960s female trios. The plan was to recruit singers who possessed strong voices, noticeably good looks, and intelligence. Auditions were held in 1988, with Herron, Jones and Robinson making the final cut. Like previous girl groups, En Vogue was originally conceived as a trio, but after hearing Ellis audition, Foster and McElroy decided to create a quartet. At first, they selected the name "For You." They shifted to "Vogue", but ultimately settled on En Vogue, upon learning that another group had already claimed the Vogue moniker.

After forming, the group began working with their producers on their debut album. Recording began in August 1989 and wrapped up in December of the same year. Born to Sing was released on April 3, 1990. The album peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 chart and No. 3 on Billboard's R&B Albums Chart. The first single, "Hold On," was released to radio in late February 1990 and became a crossover pop hit, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and No. 1 on both the R&B singles and Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts. It later went to No. 5 in the UK, and became a hit in Europe. The next two singles, "Lies" and "You Don't Have to Worry," each went to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B charts, while the fourth and final single, "Don't Go," charted at No. 3 on the Billboard R&B. The album was later certified triple platinum by the RIAA.

"Hold On" was awarded a Billboard Music Award for "#1 R&B Single of the Year," a Soul Train Award for "R&B/Urban Contemporary Single of the Year, Group, Band or Duo" and have been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. In 1990, En Vogue signed an endorsement deal to appear in a Diet Coke commercial directed by Spike Lee.

1992–94: Funky Divas, Runaway Love and touring

En Vogue's second album, Funky Divas, was released in the spring of 1992. The album debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Billboard R&B and ultimately doubled the take of its predecessor, going multi-platinum. The album's first two singles: "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)," and "Giving Him Something He Can Feel," both went top ten pop, and peaked at No. 1 on the R&B charts. The next single, "Free Your Mind" also went top ten. The final two singles "Give It Up Turn It Loose" and "Love Don't Love You" both were top forty hits.

The album went on to sell more than five million copies being one of the best selling albums of the year, won an American Music Award for "Favorite Soul/R&B Album," and was nominated for five Grammy Awards. The music video for "Free Your Mind" earned the group three MTV Video Music Awards for "Best Choreography," "Best Dance Video," and "Best R&B Video." They were also honored with Soul Train's prestigious "Entertainer of the Year Award." In addition to this, the group were featured in Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Essence among other major publications.

Riding high on the success of Funky Divas, a six-song EP entitled Runaway Love was released in the fall of 1993, spawning the hit "Runaway Love."

The group was signed to an endorsement deal with Converse, and was featured as an opening act on Luther Vandross' 1993 'Never Let Me Go' Tour. England, Germany, the Netherlands and France were among the numerous Countries toured and would confirm the group's live vocal and performing prowess. However, according to an article in Vibe magazine, Vandross (by his own admission in interviews) and his entourage clashed with the members of En Vogue during the tour and he vowed never to work with them again afterwards.

En Vogue also made numerous television appearances on such series as In Living Color, A Different World, Roc and Hangin' With Mr. Cooper (the latter two in which they also sang the shows' theme songs).

In 1993, En Vogue was featured on Salt-N-Pepa's top ten hit "Whatta Man", from Salt-N-Pepa's Very Necessary album. The track also appeared (slightly edited) on En Vogue's Runaway Love EP.

1994–98: The departure of Robinson and EV3

In 1995, En Vogue was amongst numerous female vocalists featured on the song "Freedom" for the soundtrack to Panther. Also in 1995, group member Terry Ellis recorded a solo album entitled Southern Gal, which spun off the top ten R&B single "Where Ever You Are" (although "Back Down Memory Lane" also got significant airplay) and the group later made a cameo appearance in the film Batman Forever.

In 1996, En Vogue recorded "Don't Let Go (Love)" for the soundtrack to the motion picture Set It Off. Released in the Autumn, it became the group's biggest hit to date; the single peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100, No. 1 on the R&B singles chart, and was certified platinum by the RIAA. It, inadvertently, would also be the final En Vogue single to feature Robinson. One of Robinson's final performances with her band mates came in October of that year, when the group sang the final National Anthem rendition in the history of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, which came in game five of the 1996 World Series.

In response to the large commercial success of "Don't Let Go (Love)", the group steadfastly went to work on its third album. As the album was nearing completion, Robinson chose to leave the group in April 1997 after difficult contractual negotiations reached a stalemate. Despite Robinson's abrupt departure, En Vogue resolved to continue on as a trio (forcing the group to re-record some of the tracks on their forthcoming album that had originally featured her on lead vocals).

EV3, the group's third album, was released in the spring and debuted at No. 8 on both the Billboard 200 and the Billboard R&B charts. The first single, the Babyface-penned and produced "Whatever" went on to become a top-20 pop hit, a top ten R&B hit, while also peaking at No. 5 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. On August 26, 1997, the single was certified gold by the RIAA. The follow-up single "Too Gone, Too Long" (which was produced by David Foster and written by Diane Warren) performed more modestly, managing to only peak in the top forty.

Despite it being certified platinum and the album being nominated for Grammy Award and a Soul Train Lady of Soul Award, sales for EV3 failed to live up to full commercial expectation. A world tour had been planned, but was canceled.

In 1998, En Vogue recorded "No Fool No More" for the soundtrack to the motion picture, Why Do Fools Fall in Love as well as a version of I Want A Monster to Be My Friend for the Elmopalooza special on ABC.

The following year, a greatest hits compilation, The Best of En Vogue, was released.

2000–03: Masterpiece Theatre and new member

Masterpiece Theatre, the group's fourth studio Album, was released in May 2000. The Album's title was inspired by the 'Love Suite' which is a collection of songs on Masterpiece Theatre sampling notable Classical Music compositions. The album debuted at No. 67 and 33 on the Billboard 200 and R&B Albums Charts respectively. While the Album's 'Love Suite' would garner praise from the Group's following, "Riddle" was the first (and only) single to be released and peaked at No. 92 and 95 on the Hot 100 and R&B charts. As a result of poor sales, En Vogue was dropped from the Elektra Record label.

In 2001, original member Maxine Jones left the group to focus on her family. As a result, Amanda Cole joined the group. Ellis, Herron and Cole released a holiday album, The Gift of Christmas. Soon after the holiday album, Cole too left the group and was replaced with Rhona Bennett. Meanwhile, Robinson's first solo CD Dawn was released on January 29, 2002.

2004–07: Soul Flower and impromptu reunion

In 2004, En Vogue (now composed of Ellis, Herron and Bennett) released Soul Flower on independent label 33rd Street Records. While the album failed to chart on the Billboard 200, it managed to peak at No. 47 on the R&B charts. The albums two singles: "Losin' My Mind" and "Ooh Boy", however, failed to chart. Soon after promotion had finished on this album, Maxine Jones returned to En Vogue, turning the group back into a quartet for the first time since 1996. The group teamed with Boyz II Men for select concert dates during the summer of 2004. That same year En Vogue graced the cover of R&B Showcase magazine. During the latter part of 2004, En Vogue toured Europe with Maxine Jones rejoining the group to fill the place of Cindy Herron, who was on maternity leave.

In 2005, after an eight-year absence, Robinson rejoined En Vogue. The original four went on to sign with one of the industry's largest management firms, The Firm Management Group. That September, they joined Salt N Pepa for the girl groups' first-ever joint public performance of their 1994 hit, "Whatta Man" at VH-1's hip hop Honors, and briefly toured. They also earned another Grammy nomination for the single "So What the Fuss", which featured Stevie Wonder and Prince (on guitar). The group also appeared in the single's music video. After failing to agree on business terms, Robinson once again chose to defect from En Vogue and Bennett returned. As a result, En Vogue was let go from The Firm. En Vogue continued to perform spot dates in North America with Terry Ellis, Maxine Jones, Cindy Herron and Rhona Bennett. This line-up also saw the group return to Europe and Japan for select concert dates. During this time, En Vogue teamed up with Belgian singer Natalia for a song called "Glamorous" where Rhona Bennett's vocals are featured. The single reached No. 2 in the Belgian charts and was followed by a DVD release of the concert, which went double platinum.

2008–11: Robinson's return and departure

On June 24, 2008, the original lineup of En Vogue appeared on the BET Awards, performing with Alicia Keys, SWV and TLC as a tribute to girl groups of the 1990s. With speculation abuzz, En Vogue received the twenty-eighth highest number of hits on the Rock on the Net website for the month of June 2008. The following month, the group ascended to the twelfth position. As of June 30, Robinson stated via an En Vogue Yahoo! fan site that she had indeed returned to En Vogue. On August 6, the original members appeared on Los Angeles' KTLA television station and announced that they have reunited and would do spot dates around the country during the latter part of 2008. The foursome kicked off the Americana at Brand Concert Series in Glendale, California that same evening. Furthermore, En Vogue performed at the 2009 Essence Music Festival, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. They continue to tour throughout the United States. In October 2010, the band performed their first UK show in 18 years in London.

On September 26, 2011, a new single called "I´ll Cry Later" was sent to select urban adult contemporary radio stations. In December 2011, Dawn Robinson left En Vogue once again.

2012–15: Lawsuit, Maxine Jones' departure and Rhona Bennett

In March 2012, a lawsuit was filed by Wells Fargo Bank against Rufftown, Inc. for breach of contract. On May 8, Cindy Herron announced on their official En Vogue Facebook page that no new album was coming out. En Vogue toured in 2012. In June 2012, Rhona Bennett, who was filling in for Robinson's absence announced on her Facebook page that she was in rehearsals with the group, hinting that she was once again filling in for Robinson.

In August 2012, Maxine Jones, as well as Dawn Robinson, left the group and would potentially record a group album together. During this time, they added new member Shaunté Usual to their lineup and shot a photoshoot. Herron and Ellis would continue to tour as En Vogue with Rhona Bennett. It was also soon announced that the members would take each other to court for use of the En Vogue name; a judge ruled that Herron and Ellis, as holders of the group's LLC, had exclusive rights to the group's name. Herron and Ellis filed suit against Jones and Robinson, demanding $1 million for unauthorized use of the name, though the damages request was ultimately determined to be without merit, as Herron and Ellis could not demonstrate harm done to the company from Jones's use of the name (although Robinson was named in the suit, she was not directly involved in the dispute, as she had surrendered her rights to use the name herself when she departed from the LLC years earlier).

In late 2012, Robinson and Jones announced that they would be starting a new group called "Heirs to the Throne". In 2013, Robinson chose not to begin a new group with Jones and joined the cast of the reality show "R&B Divas: L.A.". In early 2013, Jones began a touring with Alison Carney and Maria Freeman as her new line-up of En Vogue, entitled En Vogue to the Max. Jones later lost the right to use the "En Vogue" name and embarked on a solo career with her debut single "Didn't I" premiering in 2014. She later had to file for bankruptcy due to the lawsuit and debt.

In July 2014, En Vogue signed to Pyramid Records. In November 2014, they released An En Vogue Christmas. In the same month, Robinson threatened to sue Lifetime if they aired "An En Vogue Christmas". In December 2014, En Vogue released three singles: "Emotions", "A Thousand Times", and "O Holy Night", which were featured in the Lifetime movie An En Vogue Christmas

In February 2015, Rufftown Entertainment filed a lawsuit against En Vogue for breach of contract. Rufftown owner Rene Moore is seeking $310 million from the group.

2017: Electric Café and touring

En Vogue's seventh full length studio album, Electric Café, will be released during the second quarter of 2017 and include contributions from Raphael Saadiq, Dem Jointz as well as the production team Foster & McElroy. Electric Café will be released digitally Worldwide on iTunes and Spotify. The promotional single, "Deja Vu", was released on April 4, 2016.

For the Love of Music Tour is the sixth concert tour by En Vogue and was announced on February 8, 2017. The European tour will launch on April 6, 2017 in Dublin, Ireland and conclude in Bremen, Germany on April 25.

Discography

Tours