Miki Howard

Born Alicia Michelle "Miki" Howard on 30 September 1960 in Chicago, Illinois, Miki Howard is a Grammy-nominated R&B singer who logged several top 10 hits in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. As the daughter of well-known gospel singers Josephine Howard and Clay Graham, growing up she crossed paths with legendary artists such as Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staples, many of whom her family would later host at their LA house. After moving to the city aged nine, she spent her formative years immersed in LA's famous nightlife scene. Inevitably, she turned her focus to singing and at the age of sixteen began working on music with R&B artist Augie Johnson, joining his group Side Effect for several years before deciding to go it alone in 1985. Her debut album and single of the same name, Come Share My Love, arrived triumphantly in 1986 and cracked the Billboard 200 (#171) as well as reaching number 19 on the Billboard R&B Albums Chart. "Come Share My Love" became her first hit song, peaking at number five on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The LP yielded two other hit R&B singles: "Imagination" (#13) and "Come Back to Me Lover" (#33). Working again with producer LeMel Humes and others, she unveiled her sophomore album in 1987, amassing another clutch of hit singles that included "Baby, Be Mine," "That's What Love Is" with the late Gerald Levert and "Crazy." Her continued success helped her win the title of Best New Artist at the Soul Train Music Awards in 1988 and she released another two top 10 R&B albums: 1989's self-titled effort and 1992's Femme Fatale, which bore her first R&B chart-topper in the form of "Ain't Nobody Like You." That year she portrayed Billie Holiday in the Spike Lee-directed Malcolm X biopic starring Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett and 1993 saw the release of Miki Sings Billie, a tribute to Billie Holiday. She put out albums intermittently during the 2000s and 2010s, including her ninth studio album Private Collection (2008) and 2015's I Choose to Be Happy, while drifting towards jazz for 2022 offering Meha.