Music & Concerts

Deborah Cox anxious to reconnect with local gay fans

Singer, actress to perform at Town next weekend

Published

15 years ago

April 1, 2010

Many young, up-and-coming musical sensations get their start thanks to overzealous parents forcing them into the industry. Not so for chart-topping singer and actress Deborah Cox. Her interest in the business came from a genuine love of music.

Cox was born in Scarborough, Toronto, and she was singing in TV commercials at age 12 and performing in talent shows. In her teens, Cox began performing in nightclubs and was writing her own music. For a short period of time in the early 1990s, Cox continued her musical career as a backup vocalist for Celine Dion. In 1994, she realized that to advance her career, she would need to move to Los Angeles with her producer/songwriting partner, Lascelles Stephens.

The legendary Clive Davis signed her to Arista Records in 1995 and she released her self-titled debut album that year. It wasn’t until 1998 that the release of her album “One Wish” brought Cox huge pop success with the release of the album’s first single “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here.” The song spent 14 weeks at #1 on the Hot R&B charts in the U.S., as well as eight consecutive weeks at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album went platinum, becoming Cox’s biggest-selling album to date.

Deborah Cox has enjoyed a career that has produced multiple chart-topping hits and a Broadway debut in the Elton John-Tim Rice musical “AIDA” in 2004. In addition, she has shown her commitment to her gay fans as part of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors Tour” in 2008 and she performed at last year’s Delaware Pride celebration in Rehoboth. Cox will be making a not-to-be missed appearance at Town Danceboutique, 2009 8th St., N.W., for the Cherry Fund sanctioned event “Town Presents Deborah Cox w/ DJ Ed Bailey” on April 10. The event starts at 9 p.m. with an entry fee of $25 and the event is for ages 21 and over.

The DC Agenda talked to Cox about her career and her musical influences.

DC Agenda: You started your career at age 12. What was the pressure like starting at such a young age?

Deborah Cox: I don’t remember there being much pressure. When I started, I was having a lot of fun, working with a lot of great people. I always found the business part to be the most challenging; like when it came time to find people to represent me, it was about finding people to trust, who had the same vision. Fortunately, I found those people at an early age and I was able to move forward.

DC Agenda: You began writing music as a teenager. What was your source of inspiration?

Cox: I have always listened to a lot of different artists. I have been greatly influenced by gospel music and artists like Yolanda Adams, Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston. Those were the ones who really stood out in my mind; they really provided inspiration.

DC Agenda: What was your impression of Los Angeles having moved from Canada to pursue your career?

Cox: My initial impression of Los Angeles was that everybody was really nice. It wasn’t a genuine nice though, it was the kind of nice that you could tell there was a motive behind it. Friendly with a motive you could say. Fortunately, I was able to sift through everyone and find the real genuine people. Now that I’m away from L.A., I have so many friends I miss back there, and some great memories of the city.

DC Agenda: What was your impression of the legendary Clive Davis and how were you treated by Arista Records?

Cox: To me it was like the law of attraction. Throughout my career, so many things have happened to me based on what I’ve focused on, what I believe in, so teaming up with Clive Davis on the first go around made perfect sense. My mentor growing up was Whitney Houston and I believed so much in her talent, her gift and her voice; Clive must have heard something similar in me as he did with Whitney. Clive is a consummate song man; he lives for the music, and is totally driven by the people and vocalists that he loves. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn a lot of this business from him.

DC Agenda: “Beautiful U R” peaked at #3 on the Canadian Hot AC Chart in January 2009 and hit #1 on the U.S. dance chart, becoming your 10th song to do so. It included lyrics such as, “It takes time/Don’t have all the answers/No matter how hard it gets/Hold on to what’s inside” and “Don’t never let nobody tear your world apart/Look in the mirror and see who you are/Beautiful U R.” Why do you think the song proved so popular?

Cox: I think “Beautiful U R” was one of those songs that really resonated with the core of women. It came from the perspective that I’ve felt for a long time that during hard times you sometimes need to lean on yourself, and try and find a way through any negativity going on and really love yourself no matter what. You can’t wait for validation from the world, and that is hard sometimes for women because we are expected to do and be so much for so many people that at times we forget about ourselves. I also believe “Beautiful U R” branched off beyond women and spoke to everybody. Anyone can find a song that they can totally relate to.

DC Agenda: What projects are you working on now?

Cox: I’m currently working on my new album and I’m also preparing to be on Broadway in the role of Josephine Baker in “JOSEPHINE.”

DC Agenda: You made your Broadway debut in the Elton John-Tim Rice musical “AIDA.” What was that experience like?

Cox: I’ve been a fan of Elton John’s music for a long time; I love his songs, the lyrics and music. Elton has had a very colorful career, and I think his music is very diverse. I’ve always clung to artists who have an amazing time being very diverse, and Elton definitely is. Playing the role of Aida was definitely the opportunity of a lifetime because the songs are just so moving and I felt a lot of passion singing them.

DC Agenda: You will be appearing in D.C. at Town Danceboutique. What should your fans expect?

Cox: It’s definitely going to be high energy. I haven’t been to D.C. in a while so it’s going to be really exciting to see all my fans and reconnect with all of them. I really do love my fans so it is so exciting to get to connect one on one. I get such an adrenaline rush from performing in front of an audience, so I can’t wait to be back in D.C.

Deborah Cox lives in Miami. She is married to her manager, Lascelles Stephens. They have three children, Isaiah, Sumayah and Kaila Michelle.

Cherry Weekend event schedule

Cherry Weekend, the annual charitable lineup of gay parties and other events, arrives next week and runs from April 8-11. For full details and to purchase tickets, visit cherryfund.org. Events benefit HIV/AIDS youth service organizations. Full coverage in next week’s DC Agenda.

A partial schedule of events:

April 8: Opening party with DJ Jason Royce at Mova, 1435 P St., N.W., 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Admission is free, 21+

April 9: Dark Cherry emceed by Tim Woody at EFN Lounge, 1318 9th St., N.W., 5:30-9:30 p.m. 21+

April 9: Friday Night Party w/ DJ Alyson Calagna and opening DJ Jason Horswill at Apex, 1415 22nd St., N.W., 10 p.m.-4 a.m. Cover is $11; 18+
April 10: Moody Mia (Moody’s Birthday Party) with Joe Gauthreaux at Town, 2009 8th St., N.W., 2-7 p.m. 21+

April 10: Town Presents Deborah Cox with DJ Ed Bailey at Town, 2009 8th St., N.W., 9 p.m.-4 a.m. Cover is $25, 21+

April 11: Sunday Morning Party with DJ Susan Morabito at Cobalt, 1639 R St., N.W., 4:30-9:30 a.m. Cover is $15, 21+
April 11: Sunday Closing Party with DJ Abel and opening DJ tim e at Town, 2009 8th St., N.W., 8:30-1:30 a.m. Cover is $20, 21+

Music & Concerts

Underdog glorious: a personal remembrance of Jill Sobule

Talented singer, songwriter died in house fire on May 1

Published

2 weeks ago

May 10, 2025

Gregg Shapiro

Writer Gregg Shapiro with Jill Sobule in 2000. (Photo courtesy Shapiro)

I’ve always prided myself on being the kind of music consumer who purchased music on impulse. When I stumbled across “Things Here Are Different,” Jill Sobule’s 1990 MCA Records debut album on vinyl in a favorite Chicago record store, I bought it without knowing anything about her. This was at a time when we didn’t have our phones in our pockets to search for information about the artist on the internet. The LP stayed in my collection until, as vinyl was falling out of fashion, I replaced it with a CD a few years later.

Early in my career as an entertainment journalist, I received a promo copy of Jill’s eponymous 1995 Atlantic Records album. That year, Atlantic Records was one of the labels at the forefront of signing and heavily promoting queer artists, including Melissa Ferrick and Extra Fancy, and its roster included the self-titled album by Jill. It was a smart move, as the single “I Kissed A Girl” became a hit on radio and its accompanying video (featuring Fabio!) was in heavy rotation on MTV (when they still played videos).

Unfortunately for Jill, she was a victim of record label missteps. When 1997’s wonderful “Happy Town” failed to repeat the success, Atlantic dumped her. That was Atlantic’s loss, because her next album, the superb “Pink Pearl” contained “Heroes” and “Mexican Wrestler,” two of her most beloved songs. Sadly, Beyond Music, the label that released that album ceased to exist after just a few years. To her credit, the savvy Jill had also started independently releasing music (2004’s “The Folk Years”). That was a smart move because her next major-label release, the brilliant “Underdog Victorious” on Artemis Records, met a similar fate when that label folded.

With her 2009 album “California Years,” Jill launched her own indie label, Pinko Records, on which she would release two more outstanding full-length discs, 2014’s “Dottie’s Charms” (on which she collaborated with some of her favorite writers, including David Hadju, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, and Jonathan Lethem), and 2018’s stunning “Nostalgia Kills.” Jill’s cover of the late Warren Zevon’s “Don’t Let Us Get Sick” on “Nostalgia Kills” was particularly poignant as she had toured with him as an opening act.

Jill was a road warrior, constantly on tour, and her live shows were something to behold. My first interview with Jill took place at the Double Door in Chicago in early August of 1995, when she was the opening act for legendary punk band X. She had thrown her back out the previous day and was diagnosed with a herniated disc. To be comfortable, she was lying down on a fabulous-‘50s sofa. “I feel like I’m at my shrink’s,” she said to me, “Do you want me to talk about my mother?”

That sense of humor, which permeated and enriched her music, was one of many reasons to love Jill. I was privileged to interview her for seven of her albums. Everything you would want to know about her was right there in her honest lyrics, in which she balanced her distinctive brand of humor with serious subject matter. Drawing on her life experiences in songs such as “Bitter,” “Underachiever,” “One of These Days,” “Freshman,” “Jetpack,” “Nothing To Prove,” “Forbidden Thoughts of Youth,” “Island of Lost Things,” “Where Do I Begin,” “Almost Great,” and “Big Shoes,” made her songs as personal as they were universal, elicited genuine affection and concern from her devoted fans.

While she was a consummate songwriter, Jill also felt equally comfortable covering songs made famous by others, including “Just A Little Lovin’” (on the 2000 Dusty Springfield tribute album “Forever Dusty”) and “Stoned Soul Picnic” (from the 1997 Laura Nyro tribute album “Time and Love”). Jill also didn’t shy away from political subject matter in her music with “Resistance Song,” “Soldiers of Christ,” “Attic,” “Heroes,” “Under the Disco Ball,” and the incredible “America Back” as prime examples.

Here’s something else worth mentioning about Jill. She was known for collaboration skills. As a songwriter, she maintained a multi-year creative partnership with Robin Eaton (“I Kissed A Girl” and many others), as well as Richard Barone, the gay frontman of the renowned band The Bongos. Jill’s history with Barone includes performing together at a queer Octoberfest event in Chicago in 1996. Writer and comedian Julie Sweeney, of “SNL” and “Work in Progress” fame was another Chicago collaborator with Sobule (Sweeney lives in a Chicago suburb), where they frequently performed their delightful “The Jill and Julia Show.” John Doe, of the aforementioned band X, also collaborated with Jill in the studio (“Tomorrow Is Breaking” from “Nostalgia Kills”), as well as in live performances.

On a very personal note, in 2019, when I was in the process of arranging a reading at the fabulous NYC gay bookstore Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, I reached out to Jill and asked her if she would like to be on the bill with me. We alternated performing; I would read a couple of poems, and Jill would sing a couple of songs. She even set one of my poems to music, on the spot.

Jill had an abundance of talent, and when she turned her attention to musical theater, it paid off in a big way. Her stage musical “F*ck 7th Grade,” a theatrical piece that seemed like the next logical step in her career, had its premiere at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre in the fall of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. The unique staging (an outdoor drive-in stage at which audience members watched from their cars) was truly inspired. “F*ck 7th Grade” went on to become a New York Times Critic’s pick, as well as earning a Drama Desk nomination.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Jill’s eponymous 1995 album, reissue label Rhino Records is re-releasing it on red vinyl. Jill and I had been emailing each other to arrange a time for an interview. We even had a date on the books for the third week of May.

When she died in a house fire in Minnesota on May 1 at age 66, Jill received mentions on network and cable news shows. She was showered with attention from major news outlets, including obits in the New York Times and Rolling Stone (but not Pitchfork, who couldn’t be bothered to review her music when she was alive). Is it wrong to think that if she’d gotten this much attention when she was alive she could have been as big as Taylor Swift? I don’t think so.

Music & Concerts

Tom Goss returns with ‘Bear Friends Furever Tour’

Out singer/songwriter to perform at Red Bear Brewing Co.

Published

3 weeks ago

May 2, 2025

Tinashe Chingarande

Singer Tom Goss is back. (Photo by Dusti Cunningham)

Singer Tom Goss will bring his “Bear Friends Furever Tour” to D.C. on Sunday, June 8 at 8 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing Co.

Among the songs he will perform will be “Bear Soup,” the fourth installment in his beloved bear song anthology series. Following fan favorites like “Bears,” “Round in All the Right Places,” and “Nerdy Bear,” this high-energy, bass-thumping banger celebrates body positivity, joyful indulgence, and the vibrant spirit of the bear subculture.

For more details, visit Tom Goss’s website.

Music & Concerts

Kylie brings ‘Tension’ tour to D.C.

Performance on Tuesday at Capital One Arena

Published

2 months ago

April 5, 2025

Tinashe Chingarande

Kylie Minogue visits D.C. on Tuesday.

Aussie pop icon Kylie Minogue brings her acclaimed “Tension” world tour to D.C. next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Capital One Arena. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.

The show features songs spanning her long career, from 1987 debut single, “The Loco-Motion,” to “Padam, Padam” from her album, “Tension.”