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Anita Baker music biography continued...

church choir. Not long after completing high school, Baker joined Chapter 8, a local group that had signed a national record contract with Ariola Records, later a part of Arista. However, the group only recorded one 1979 album and Baker was labeled by Arista as a mediocre lead singer not worth supporting. She left the music business temporarily, but was lured back with a deal from upstart California label Beverly Glen. The resulting album—The Songstress—featured a jazzy song called "Angel" that created quite a stir on black urban radio and led to Baker's first deal with a major label. Elektra released Baker's Rapture behind the single ballad "Sweet Love," which brought widespread attention to the album and resulted in Baker winning 1986 Grammy Awards for best R&B Female Vocalist and best R&B Song. Baker won another Grammy the next year for a duet on the Winans' "Ain't No Need to Worry." By the time of her 1988 release, Giving You The Best I Got, Baker was at the top of her game, and the disc immediately topped by the Pop and Soul charts. The title cut of that album resulted in three more Grammies and clearly established Baker as the First Lady of Soul.



After two more moderately successful follow-up albums—Compositions and Rhythm of Love, Baker dropped out of the business to raise a family. She started a comeback in 2000, but was besieged by personal problems that forced her to withdraw from the music scene once again. In September, 2004, Baker released My Everything on Blue Note Records, her first new studio album in a decade. It landed in the Pop and Soul top 10 and earned her a Grammy nomination. In October 2005, Baker released her first Christmas album, Christmas Fantasy, which mixed Christmas classics, standards and three new songs. The album garnered Baker a Grammy Award nomination in 2007 for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for the song "Christmas Time Is Here". In 2008, Baker started touring again, giving long-time fans and newer listeners reason to celebrate her return to the industry.