Leah LaBelle

Leah LaBelle Vladowski[lower-alpha 1] was born on September 8, 1986, in Toronto, Canada, and raised in Seattle, Washington.[2][3] Her parents, Anastasia and Troshan Vladowski, were Bulgarian singers,[2] and her uncle made rock music in Bulgaria.[3] Anastasia had recorded pop music before forming Bulgaria's first rock band, the Silver Bracelets, with Troshan.[4] After defecting from Bulgaria during a 1979 tour,[5][6] LaBelle's parents emigrated to Canada and later the United States, becoming naturalized citizens in both countries.[2] They initially moved to Pennsylvania, where Anastasia cleaned CVS Pharmacy parking lots, before going to Tacoma, Washington.[7] While in the United States, they formed the music group Double Freedom and toured the country.[7][8] During this time, LaBelle's parents divorced, and she was raised primarily by her mother in Seattle.[7] LaBelle grew up listening to music with her mother, including jazz and the Beatles, but felt the most connected with R&B.[9] She was discouraged from pursuing a career in the genre,[10] but said she ignored stereotypes involving blue-eyed soul.[9] Her early influences included Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Sade, Brandy Norwood, and Kim Burrell.[9][11]

Leah LaBelle attended Garfield High School.

LaBelle started performing publicly in 1990,[2] including singing on stage during her parents' tours.[8] At the age of 11, she joined the Total Experience Gospel Choir,[12] after being inspired by Lauryn Hill's performance in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.[13] LaBelle cited Hill as her biggest musical influence.[9][11] While performing in the choir, she became interested in gospel and soul music.[14] She also participated in beauty pageants, and in 1997, she won the Washington State Pre-teen Miss America Pageant and was the first runner-up in the National Pageant.[5] A year later, she performed in the musical Black Nativity and stayed in the production for five years under the mentorship of Pat Wright. In 2000, she joined the children's show Caught in the Middle and remained a part of the program for two years.[2] LaBelle attended Garfield High School,[5] where she sang in a jazz band led by Clarence Acox Jr.[2] Winning the Grand Prize at KUBE 93.3 Summer Jam Idol in 2002, she performed as the opening act for the Summer Jam 20.[5]

At the age of 16, LaBelle auditioned for the third season of the television show American Idol;[5] for the audition, she sang a cover of Whitney Houston's "I Believe in You and Me".[12] She appeared on the series while a senior in high school.[2] After becoming one of the 32 semi-finalists, LaBelle was eliminated in the top 30 round, but judge Paula Abdul chose her as a "wildcard selection" to advance as one of the twelve finalists.[12] She placed twelfth during the season finals,[5] after performing a cover of The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On".[12] Looking back on American Idol in a 2016 interview, LaBelle said she was "too young at that time and not developed enough as an artist".[8]

The compilation album American Idol Season 3: Greatest Soul Classics (2004) includes LaBelle's version of The Stylistics' "Betcha by Golly, Wow".[15] While recording the song, she was briefly mentored by one of its producers, but he would later focus on his work with Rihanna instead.[8] AllMusic's Heather Phares praised LaBelle as "surprisingly strong and mature", and wrote that "the studio brings out colors in her voice that she didn't display on-stage".[15] On the other hand, NUVO's Steve Hammer criticized her as "crushing the life" from the original.[16]

In 2004, after returning from American Idol,[2] LaBelle performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a National Football League game, and "Lift Every Voice and Sing" during a National Basketball Association game.[17][18] The same year, she featured on Lisa Leuschner's cover of "Silent Night" for her album Sing Me Home,[19] and recorded "Christmas Time" for the compilation album Christmas in the Northwest, Vol. 7.[20] After graduating from Garfield High School in 2005, LaBelle attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston Massachusetts.[5] She said that she moved away from Seattle to "come into my own world, my own zone and really appreciate me and my music".[21]

While attending Berklee College, LaBelle rejected two recording contracts, including one from Andreao Heard, based on her attorney's advice. Her mother explained that she found the offers "too binding".[21] Heard became interested in LaBelle after watching a video of her performance in the Total Experience Gospel Choir.[22] While working with Heard, she recorded a demo written by Makeba Riddick and sent it out to various record labels.[21][22] LaBelle shifted her focus toward combining R&B with pop music, explaining: "I want to bring real music back but make it marketable and mainstream. To me real music isn’t everything being synthesized, computerized."[21] In a 2018 Billboard article, Heard attributed the end of their working relationship to "the business side of the industry".[22]

LaBelle stayed at Berklee College for one year,[7] before moving to Los Angeles, California at the age of 21 to further pursue a career in music.[8] She received attention for releasing cover versions of R&B and soul music on her YouTube channel.[13][14][23] She created the account on December 1, 2007, following the advice of an industry contact.[8][24] During a 2012 Seventeen interview, LaBelle said she had prioritized working in a recording studio over filming YouTube videos.[25] In a 2018 Vibe article, Desire Thompson wrote "the early days of YouTube were a blessing to singers like LaBelle".[14]

In 2008, Keri Hilson saw LaBelle's cover of her single "Energy", which received over 500,000 views as of October 16, 2012,[23] and hired her as a backing vocalist.[14] LaBelle looked to Hilson as a mentor, and said that she "brought me along with her and allowed me to see into the industry a little bit deeper than I already have".[14] She then worked as a background singer for Robin Thicke, Jordin Sparks, the Jonas Brothers, Britney Spears, and Eric Benét on their respective tours.[14][25] In March 2008, LaBelle sang at Quincy Jones' 75th birthday party at the Northwest African American Museum.[26] The same year, she was included on American Idol Rewind[27] and featured on Kumasi's single "Angel" from his debut studio album The One in 2009.[28]

LaBelle performing at the Crocodile Cafe in October 2013

In 2011, LaBelle signed a record contract with L.A. Reid's company Epic in a partnership with Pharrell Williams' label I Am Other and Jermaine Dupri's label So So Def Recordings.[13][23] Dupri and Williams became interested in LaBelle after watching her YouTube covers, and contacted her through Twitter.[7][9] They became mentors for her;[14] prior to their messages, LaBelle had considered giving up on a music career.[7]

On May 1, 2012, LaBelle released the five-track sampler album Pharrell Williams and Jermaine Dupri Present Leah LaBelle, which was distributed to record companies.[29][30][31] The sampler album was uploaded to LaBelle's SoundCloud account.[32] It was promoted with the single "Sexify",[29] which peaked at number 23 and 89 on the Billboard Adult R&B Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts, respectively.[33][34] A 2018 Billboard article cited "Sexify" as LaBelle's breakthrough.[31] "What Do We Got To Lose?" was released as a promotional single in November 2012.[35] LaBelle said the sampler album indicated the sound for her debut studio album,[lower-alpha 2] which she described as "feel-good texture music" with a "throwback-but-new feel".[11] She recorded music for the album with Williams in Miami, Florida and Dupri in Atlanta, Georgia.[7]

At the 2012 Soul Train Music Awards, LaBelle received the Soul Train Centric Award and performed a tribute to Aretha Franklin and Teena Marie with Fantasia Barrino.[39] She sang at the 2012 Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana and BET's Music Matters showcase, held over the weekend of the 55th Annual Grammy Awards.[40][41] The standalone-single, "Lolita", was released in May 2013.[42] A digital extended play (EP) of electro house remixes and instrumentals was made available the prior month.[43] "Lolita" reached number seven on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart and peaked at number 264 on the official Tophit airplay chart.[44][45]

In 2013, LaBelle featured on Brian Cross' single "Shot Gun" from his album Pop Star,[46][47] and did background vocals for Nelly's seventh studio album M.O..[48] She opened for JoJo's The Agápē Tour that fall.[49][50] The following year, LaBelle provided vocals for Williams' second studio album Girl.[51][52] She reunited with Heard in 2017 during the 59th Annual Grammy Awards; he said that she was going through a "dark period" due to her inability to release new music following the poor commercial performance of her singles. He believed she had given up on a music career.[22]