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All Music Guide:
Tracie Spencer first made an impact as a child performer, winning the TV talent show Star Search and having a hit record under her belt by the time she was 12 years old. The Iowa-born singer's self-titled 1990 debut featured an interesting mix of youthfulness and potential soulfulness, which developed on songs like "Tender Kisses" and "This House." One of a handful of performers young enough to have a comeback while still in her twenties, Spencer resurfaced in 1999 with Tracie, which she described as her "coming of age record."
Wikipedia:
Tracie Monique Spencer (born July 12, 1976) is an American R&B and pop singer-songwriter, actress, and model.
Biography
Spencer was born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa. She began singing by the age of three and modeling in pageant competitions at age five. Tracie performed, produced and directed her first music videos before she was ten years of age. This led to her competing on Star Search the 1980s CBS televised talent competition. She performed Whitney Houston's 1986 hit "How Will I Know" and won the competition.
Shortly thereafter, she became the youngest female artist to sign a record deal with a major label, Capitol Records, and to release a self-titled debut album on January 16, 1988. She found success with the singles "Hide and Seek", "Symptoms of True Love" and her remake of John Lennon's "Imagine". Her second album, Make the Difference, was released on August 27, 1990.
The first single, "Save Your Love", showed an impressive standing at #7 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. Her following single, "This House", became her biggest hit to date reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Tender Kisses", one of her best known ballads, hit #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and made her the youngest female artist to receive the ASCAP songwriter of the year award. The other singles, "This Time Make It Funky" and "Love Me", charted relatively well on The Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks.
Spencer served on the board of the Children's Defense Fund as a teen and was given the Martin Luther King Christian Leadership Award for being a positive role model to youth and traveling across the US and abroad as part of a "Stay In School" program.
She made a guest appearance on the hit ABC sitcom, Family Matters as well as commercials, in 1993 and recorded the song "I'll Be There for You" for the 1997 film, Good Burger, "The Rain" for "A Smile Like Yours" starring Lauren Holly and Greg Kinnear, "Down In The Delta", and "Girlfight" starring Michelle Rodriquez. She also modeled for Tommy Hilfiger, Chanel and Dollhouse, which lead to her being a part of New York and LA's fashion weeks in 1999-2000, being styled by Derek Khan, being signed to "NEXT" modeling agency and appearing in numerous magazines.
On June 29, 1999, she released Tracie, which featured the singles "It's All About You (Not About Me)" and "Still In My Heart." In the 2000s, she started singing background vocals on hip-hop songs for rappers such as Kanye West ("Slow Jamz" and "Never Let Me Down" from The College Dropout), 50 Cent ("Back Down" from Get Rich Or Die Tryin'), and Eve as well as songwriting for other artist's projects. She acted in the short film, A Tale of Two Sisters; in 2004 and in 2006, she performed in a play called Choices in Los Angeles. As of 2007, Spencer has taken a hiatus from music; however, she is still modeling and pursuing other interests.
Cover versions
Her song "My First Broken Heart" was covered by a Filipina diva-actress Iya Villania, and released in 2008 on her album Finally!.
