The song became a Top Ten R&B hit and earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance another song on the album, a duet with Babyface entitled "Slow Jams," was nominated for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group. At that party, she met Quincy Jones, who was soon taken with Tamia's talent.īy the end of the year, she had sung "You Put a Move on My Heart" for Jones' new album, Q's Jook Joint.
That same year, she attended a party her manager Brenda Richie held for Luther Vandross. The following year, she won the Steve Ross Music Scholarship at the American Academy of Achievement's Annual Salute to Excellence in 1994. She soon earned a reputation and several awards, including the YTV Vocal Achievement Award in 1993. As a child, she took acting and singing lessons, eventually appearing in a number of local choirs and theatrical presentations. In 2012, she earned her fifth and sixth Grammy nominations for her album Beautiful Surprise.īorn Tamia Marilyn Washington, in Windsor, Ontario in 1975, Tamia became interested in performing at a young age. Along the way, she scored hits like "Imagination," "So Into You," and "Stranger in My House," the latter of which hit number three on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and number one on the Dance Club Songs chart. She followed with several successful albums for Elektra, including 2000's A Nu Day, and 2004's More. The song earned a Grammy nomination and paved the way for her 1998 self-titled debut. “There are people who’ve won Grammys, and that’s it we’ve never heard from them again… I’m still here 20 years since the first nomination.A soulful, Canadian-born R&B singer and songwriter, Tamia got an early start in the music industry singing "You Put a Move on My Heart," the first single from Quincy Jones' 1994 hit album Q's Jook Joint, when she was only a teenager. Nonetheless, this astonishing talent would rather longevity over Grammys. Naturally, I wanted to get Tamia’s real feelings, so I pressed a little bit more to which she responded: “I have been nominated for like six Grammys, but whatever (laughs). “I don’t necessarily have a lot of awards and accolades but I’m very proud of the work that I’ve done, and I don’t do it for the accolades, I do it for the love of the music.” “I feel like I’ve been fortunate enough to be recognized for the things that I’ve done, Tamia tells Singersroom. During our quick sit down, Tamia, who is celebrating the 20th anniversary of her critically-acclaimed, self-titled debut, Tamia, spoke enthusiastically about the pending release, her career, managing her life, and wanting to win a Grammy (after we dragged it out of her). On Tuesday (May 15th), Tamia held an intimate private album listening session at Vinyl Crown Studios in New York City with a few members of the media and following the event, Singersroom spoke with the music veteran about the upcoming release (Her new music sounded amazing). Like its predecessor, Passion Like Fire is inspired from a place of love and includes a body of songs that are cleverly-written, harmonically-rich, and operate from the core of real R&B. “I’m super excited to debut new music, go back out on the road again, connect with people through the music album releases are always an exciting time,” Tamia declares.
Six-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Tamia recently made her return to music with the soulful new single, “ Leave It Smokin,'” the first release from her forthcoming album, Passion Like Fire, the follow-up to 2015’s ‘Love Life.’