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Vanessa Williams music biography continued...

in the upstate New York town of Millwood to parents who were both music teachers, Williams took to performing at a young age and earned a scholarship to study musical theater at Syracuse University. After college Williams became the first black woman to win the Miss America beauty pageant, but she had to resign her title when nude photos of her surfaced in Penthouse magazine. After the scandal, Williams regrouped and returned to what she loved—singing, and backed George Clinton on his 1986 album R&B Skeletons in the Closet, including the single "Do Fries Go With That Shake?" Williams' debut album, The Right Stuff, was released in 1988, featuring a mix of urban dance-pop tunes and adult contemporary ballads. The title track was somewhat of a hit and the ballad "Dreamin'" became Williams' first Top Ten single, going all the way to number one on the R&B charts. The Right Stuff ultimately went gold, but her biggest recording success was yet to come with 1991's The Comfort Zone. The album yielded another R&B chart-topper in "Running Back to You," but the star-maker was the ballad "Save the Best for Last," a huge single that became Williams' first number one hit on the pop charts. The album cemented Williams' growing reputation as a talented purveyor of smooth, sexy adult pop, and the album went on to sell a redemptive two million copies.



In late 1994, Williams released her third album, The Sweetest Days, which found her branching out into jazzy pop and collaborating with top stars like Sting and Babyface to bring a sense of sophistication and polish to her sound. In 1995, Williams was tapped to sing the commercial version of "Colors of the Wind," the theme to the Disney film Pocahontas. The tune was a mega-hit and garnered Williams an Academy Award. By 1998, with the release of her greatest hits album, Williams had slowed down her musical output to concentrate more on her film career. She continues to record and perform, however, reaching out to music fans who embrace a true survivor.