Jennifer Holliday (born Jennifer-Yvette Holliday on October 19, 1960 in Riverside, Texas) is an American singer and actress. Her career started on Broadway in musicals, but eventually she became a successful recording artist. She is best known for her debut single, the Grammy Award-winning R&B/Pop hit "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going". October 19 is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... Riverside is a city located in Walker County, Texas. ... A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ... For other uses, see Rhythm and blues (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Soul music (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Dance music is a style of popular music commonly played in dance music nightclubs, radio stations and shows and raves. ... Gospel music may refer to the religious music that first came out of African-American churches in the first quarter of the twentieth century or, more loosely, to both black gospel music and to the religious music composed and sung by predominately white Southern Gospel artists. ... Ercole de Roberti: Concert, c. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group. ... Arista Records is an American record label that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony BMG, and operates under the RCA Records Group // After being fired from CBS Records, Columbia Pictures hired Clive Davis to be a consultant for the company’s record and music operations. ... October 19 is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... Riverside is a city located in Walker County, Texas. ... Ercole de Roberti: Concert, c. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... A collection of various CD singles In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. ... Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (originally called the Gramophone Awards, commonly referred to as the Grammys) are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for outstanding achievements in the record industry. ... For other uses, see Rhythm and blues (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... And I Am Telling You Im Not Going is a song from the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, with lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Henry Krieger. ...

Career

Broadway actress

Holliday landed her first big role on Broadway in 1979. At age 17, she landed a part the same day she auditioned for the Broadway production of Your Arms Too Short To Box With God ^[1]. Her performance in that musical earned her a 1981 Drama Desk nomination. Her next role was the role for which she is best known: the role of Effie Melody White in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls. Holliday joined the show in December 1981 and remained with the show for nearly four years. Her performance in the role was widely acclaimed, particularly in her iconic performance of the musical number that ends Act I, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going". Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... Dreamgirls is an award-winning Broadway musical, which opened on December 20, 1981 at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway and ran for 1,522 performances. ... And I Am Telling You Im Not Going is a song from the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, with lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Henry Krieger. ...

Among the acclaim was Holliday's sweep of awards in 1982, including the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, a Grammy award for her recorded version of the song, and Drama Desk and Theater World awards for the performance. Holliday also performed in the touring company of Sing, Mahalia, Sing in 1986. The Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical is awarded to the actress who was voted as the best actress in a musical, whether a new production or a revival. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Recording artist

Jennifer Holliday's version of the song "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" made Holliday a star on Broadway. The version of the song was liked by many fans so much that Holliday was encouraged to transform the song into a hit on Billboard charts. In 1982, a pop version of the song was released as a single. The song became very successful, peaking at number-one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart, and number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. She continued to have success as a recording artist through the rest of the decade. Her follow-up song, "I Am Love", became another hit in 1983. Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... Billboard can refer to: Billboard magazine Billboard (advertising) Billboard antenna In 3D computer graphics, to billboard is to rotate an object so that it faces the viewer. ... Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, formerly known as Top Soul Singles, Top Black Singles, and Top R&B Singles (before the hip-hop term was added in the late 1990s), is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States. ... The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. ... A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ...

Jennifer Holliday's 1996 The Best of Jennifer Holliday album.

Holliday's later R&B hits included. "Hard Time For Lovers" (1985), "No Frills Love" (1985), "Heart on the Line" (1987), "I'm on Your Side" (1991) and "A Woman's Got the Power" (2000). "A Woman's Got the Power" charted at #7 in summer of 1999. However, it recharted the following year, peaking at #1. She continued to appear on the charts throughout the 1990s, but never had the same level of success she had in the 1980s. Holliday was a featured vocalist on the #1 single "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner in 1985. A number of her songs became hits on the US Dance charts as well. In fact, a dance version of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" would peak at #6 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 2001. Image File history File links Jennifer_Holliday. ... Image File history File links Jennifer_Holliday. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... I Want to Know What Love Is is a song recorded by Foreigner. ... Foreigner is a hard rock band formed in New York City in 1976 by veteran musicians Mick Jones and Ian McDonald, along with then unknown vocalist Lou Gramm (Louis Grammatico). ... Billboards Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart is a weekly national survey of what songs are most popular in U.S. dance clubs. ... Billboards Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart is a weekly national survey of what songs are most popular in U.S. dance clubs. ...

In the 1990s, Holliday lost a substantial amount of weight and talked about her health struggles with depression during promotional interviews. ^[2] Initially, the weight loss was attained strictly by diet. Eventually, in an effort to avoid regaining the weight, Holliday had gastric bypass surgery. After the initial weight loss, she released the I’m On Your Side LP and video. The video, unlike most videos, was recorded live. In 1995, Holliday released a gospel album entitled On & On.

Popular with LGBT events and fundraisers, the Atlantic Entertainment Group produced and promoted many Jennifer Holliday events for several years; with their "Director of Live Talent", Scott Sherman, acting as both Agent and Road Manager^[3] she went on a series of mini tours, one night only performances, LGBT pride appearances and special fund raising events. Her fans are patiently waiting for her to release new singles, perhaps a full length Club/Dance style album once she gets resigned to another label. LGBT (or GLBT) is an initialism used as a collective term to refer to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people. ... LGBT (or GLBT) is an initialism used as a collective term to refer to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people. ... Six color rainbow gay pride flag flying over Castro Street, San Francisco, June 2005 The gay pride or simply pride campaign of the gay rights movement has three main premises: that people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity, that sexual diversity is a gift, and that...

Television Appearances

Apart from her career in the music industry and on the stage, Holliday has also made appearances on primetime television. In addition to appearances on Touched By An Angel and Hang Time, she had a half dozen appearances in a recurring guest star role on Ally McBeal, where she played choir director Lisa Knowles. The music industry is the industry that creates, performs, promotes, and preserves music. ... Interior of the 1928 B. F. Keith Memorial Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts. ... Touched by an Angel was an American drama/fantasy television series created by John Masius and Martha Williamson that ran on CBS for nine seasons, from September 21st, 1994, until April 27th, 2003, and aired in many countries all around the world. ... Hang time can refer to a number of things: Hang time generally refers to how long something stays in the air: In basketball, the length of time a player hangs onto the rim after a slam dunk In American football, the length of time a punted ball flies through the... Ally McBeal was a television series which ran on the FOX network from 1997 to 2002, and was one of the best-known comedy-drama television series of the 1990s. ... A choir or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. ...

In 2001, she sang America The Beautiful on the first WWE pay-per-view to be held after the September 11th terrorist attacks. World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, is a professional wrestling promotion, currently the largest in North America. ...

Personal

Holliday was married twice. In March 1991, just 2 months after she met keyboardist Billy Meadows in a nightclub where she was singing, they married. "He had a great sense of humor and he made me laugh all the time," Holliday says of her first husband. "I had been feeling bad for so long, I wanted to laugh." In December 1991, just nine months later, they divorced: the marriage, according to Holliday, "ran out of steam" :"We just didn't know each other well enough"^[4].

The second time around, she married a man much like her father. Her second marriage was to Rev. Andre Woods (21 March 1993 - 1995), a minister in Michigan, which was covered by Jet magazine. This husband was a charismatic Detroit preacher who, she says, was a player who also ran through her money. Still, Holliday was devastated when, in 1994, that marriage, too, ended, just four months after her mother died of cancer. "It was like experiencing two deaths at the same time," Jennifer remembers. "The grief was overwhelming." To stabilize her emotions and help her cope with the loss of her mother and an ugly divorce, Holliday took her doctor's advice and decided to go back on the antidepressants that had been prescribed for her once before.^[5]. She currently resides in Manhattan, New York.

Trivia

• Nell Carter was the first Effie White. When Carter left after the initial workshop to work in television in Los Angeles, Bennett chose Jennifer Holliday for the role.
• Holliday was initially cast as Effie in Dreamgirls because of her plus-size stature. She was caricatured in the then current version of Forbidden Broadway as Screamgirls, playing on Holliday’s style of belting out the notes.
• Holliday has been one of many performers to grace the Divas Simply Singing gala created by her Dreamgirls costar, Sheryl Lee Ralph. It is a fundraiser and awareness gala for the study and prevention of AIDS/HIV, especially among women.
• Jennifer Holliday is regarded as a moderate Gay Icon diva by the LGBT communties in North America.

Nell Carter, as Nell Harper on Gimme a Break! Nell Carter (September 13, 1948 – January 23, 2003) was an American singer and film, stage and television actress. ... Forbidden Broadway is an off-Broadway show created and written by Gerard Alessandrini and directed by Alessandrini and long-time collaborator Phillip George. ... Sheryl Lee Ralph (born on December 30, 1956 in Waterbury, Connecticut, USA) is an African-American actress and singer of Jamaican descent, best known for her work in musical theatre productions such as Dreamgirls, her co-starring role in the 1980s television sitcom Its A Living and as Brandy... LGBT (or GLBT) is an initialism used as a collective term to refer to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people. ...

Discography

Singles

For other uses, see Rhythm and blues (disambiguation). ... The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. ... Billboards Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart is a weekly national survey of what songs are most popular in U.S. dance clubs. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... And I Am Telling You Im Not Going is a song from the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, with lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Henry Krieger. ... Dreamgirls: Original Broadway Cast Album is the cast album for the original Broadway production of the musical Dreamgirls, which debuted at the Imperial Theatre on December 20, 1981. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... I Am Changing is a song from the second act of the long-running Broadway musical Dreamgirls. ... Dreamgirls: Original Broadway Cast Album is the cast album for the original Broadway production of the musical Dreamgirls, which debuted at the Imperial Theatre on December 20, 1981. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

Selected Albums

1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Feel My Soul is the 1983 (see 1983 in music) debut album of Jennifer Holliday, released on Geffen Records. ... The Billboard 200 is a listing of the 200 highest selling music albums in the United States, published weekly in Billboard magazine. ... The Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart was established by Billboard magazine in 1984. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Billboard 200 is a listing of the 200 highest selling music albums in the United States, published weekly in Billboard magazine. ... The Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart was established by Billboard magazine in 1984. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jennifer Hollidays formidable vocal talent and charisma is stifled by lackluster songswriting and overproduced tracks. ... The Billboard 200 is a listing of the 200 highest selling music albums in the United States, published weekly in Billboard magazine. ... The Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart was established by Billboard magazine in 1984. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jennifer Holliday came back onto the charts with her fourth album, Im album consists of soul stirring, dramatic, moving ballads. ... The Billboard 200 is a listing of the 200 highest selling music albums in the United States, published weekly in Billboard magazine. ... The Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart was established by Billboard magazine in 1984. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jennifer Holliday shines on this, her her fifth album, On & On. ... On January 4, 1936, Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade and on July 20, 1940 the first Music Popularity Chart was calculated. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... The Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart was established by Billboard magazine in 1984. ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

Awards & Nominations

Tony Awards

• 1982 Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Dreamgirls), Winner

Drama Desk Awards

• 1982 Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Dreamgirls), Winner
• 1981 Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Your Arms Too Short To Box With God)

Theatre Awards

• 1982 Outstanding Broadway Debut (Dreamgirls), Winner

Time Magazine

• Performer of the decade

NAACP

• Image award

Grammy Awards

• 1982 Best Female Performance, Rhythm & Blues ("And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls), Winner

• 1985 Best Inspirational Performance, Gospel (:Come Sunday", Winner)

Dreamgirls is an award-winning Broadway musical, which opened on December 20, 1981 at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway and ran for 1,522 performances. ... Dreamgirls is an award-winning Broadway musical, which opened on December 20, 1981 at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway and ran for 1,522 performances. ... Dreamgirls is an award-winning Broadway musical, which opened on December 20, 1981 at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway and ran for 1,522 performances. ... And I Am Telling You Im Not Going is a song from the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, with lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Henry Krieger. ... Dreamgirls is an award-winning Broadway musical, which opened on December 20, 1981 at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway and ran for 1,522 performances. ... Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924) is an American film and stage actress. ... Woman of the Year is a 1942 romantic comedy film in which a feminist, chosen Woman of the Year, tries to keep the spark in her personal relationship. ... The Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical is awarded to the actress who was voted as the best actress in a musical, whether a new production or a revival. ... Dreamgirls is an award-winning Broadway musical, which opened on December 20, 1981 at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway and ran for 1,522 performances. ... Nataliya Romanovna Makarova is a ballet dancer. ... On Your Toes has two possible meanings. ...

See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

This is a list of number-one dance hits as recorded by Billboard Magazine’s Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart — a weekly national survey of popular songs in U.S. dance clubs. ... This is a list of recording artists who have reached number one on Billboard magazines Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. ...

External links

• Performance of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from the 1982 Tony Awards
• Reference 1:Essence June 1999: Jennifer Holliday On Her 2 Failed Marriages
• Reference 2: Nov 1991 Ebony Magazine: Jennifer Holliday About Her Weight Loss