Diva Gray

Diva Gray (credited as Diva Grey in Jem) is an American disco singer and backing vocalist of the disco band Chic. She also was in disco groups such as Change and Lemon with her friends Lani Groves, Gordon Grody (both which worked in Jem, the latter who provided Riot's singing voice), Luther Vandross, David Lasley and Kenny Lehman. Furthermore, she was in Bette Midler's female backing group, The Harlettes, with Ula Hedwig and Jocelyn Brown. As a solo performer, she cut only one album called Hotel Paradise.

She provided backing singing vocals in the Jem animated series.

Career[]

Diva Gray is a lead and background vocalist, best known for her recording work in the 1970s-80s. As a vocalist for groups such as Chic and Change, Gray left her mark on disco recordings such as Dance, Dance, Dance, Le Freak, Hold Tight and Paradise. Hotel Paradise is Gray's solo album project, produced by Luigi Ogival and met with great success in Europe on Columbia Records.

Gray first began her music career touring with Harry Belafonte in the mid-70s, later singing on Broadway, in addition to singing and dancing for Bette Midler. However, Gray preferred the creative world of studio work, where she excelled for decades.

In 1977, Gordon Grody (Riot's singing voice and who later became Lady Gaga's vocal coach), first discovered Gray's clear vocal style and her mastery at assigning vocal parts during a studio gig. Musicians gave Gray the nickname "Diva" because of her reputation as a classically-trained opera singer and her ability to sight read music charts accurately on first takes. These assets soon made her a sought-after studio singer. Plus, Gray's ability to sing any music genre, from opera to R&B to pop, also made her a first call in the highly-competitive New York City studio scene.

First teamed with the legendary Luther Vandross and Robin Clark with Chic, Gray's signature vocal style became stamped into the grooves of many gold and platinum records of the 1970s-80s; recordings that include artists and groups such as David Bowie, George Benson, Steely Dan, Bette Midler, and Sister Sledge, among others.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Gray provided backing vocals for the song "Destiny" by The Stingers and the high note heard at the end is hers.
Gray sang backing vocals on KISS singer/bassist Gene Simmons' 1978 solo album. Cher also provided backing vocals for that album.

External links[]

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Diva Gray. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with the Jem Wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.