Download Media:
PHOTO [1]
Teena Marie
Born Mary Christine Brockert in Santa Monica, California, and raised in the nearby cultural melting pot dubbed “Venice Harlem,” Teena gravitated to music and entertainment at an early age. As a child, she charmed her way into TV commercials and a memorable singing-dancing part on an episode of “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Later while studying English Literature at Santa Monica City College, she landed the TV pilot “Orphanage Children,” a Motown production. Though the pilot was shelved, Motown signed Teena to its Gordy imprint in 1975. After four years and working with several in-house producers, she was taken under the wing of superstar Rick James who produced her 1979 debut, Wild and Peaceful. Her face was not on the cover, leading everyone to assume she was black, thus the Top 10 success of her very first single “I’m A Sucker For Your Love”…but Teena had the soul to back it up by the time the world saw her clear as day on the front and back covers of the follow-up, Lady T. By her third album Irons in the Fire (1980), Teena was producing, writing and arranging all of her own material. Her next album It Must Be Magic became a platinum seller thanks to her R&B-Hip Hop mash-up “Square Biz” (#2 R&B for 8 weeks) and the Quiet Storm classic “Portugese Love,” but it would be her last Motown album. A suit she filed against the legendary company resulted in the landmark recording artists’ rights initiative – “The Teena Marie Law” - which put strict limitations on the length of artist/company contracts. This historical entertainment mandate states that no recording company can contractually bind an artist while refusing to release his/her product. In 1983, Teena arrived at Epic Records where she released five more albums, including her biggest seller to date, the platinum-plus Starchild (1984), buoyed by the crossover smash “Lovergirl” (#4 pop / #9 R&B), and Naked To The World (1988) featuring her #1 R&B hit “Ooh La La La” (sampled by superstar rap trio The Fugees in 1996 for “Fu-Gee-La”). In 1994, Teena released her tenth album, Passion Play, on her own Sarai Records label. Shortly after the birth of her daughter Aliya, Teena took a ten year sabbatical from recording, though she still performed to SRO audiences. Against all odds, Teena made her triumphant bold soul sister return in 204 - at the age of 50 - with La Doña, an album which soared to #3 on the R&B chart and Top 10 on The Billboard 200 thanks to the Mannie Fresh-produced single “Still in Love.” That she was making this “comeback” through Ca$h Money Records – which built its reputation on hardcore southern rap - made her success that much more noteworthy. Teena followed that project with Sapphire in 2006, but her time on the Ca$h Money Classics imprint is probably more prophetic in that the company is based in New Orleans, a place to which she always felt kindred and that plays an important role in her 2009 Stax debut, Congo Square. “I have always had a deep affinity for New Orleans,” she states. From the moment I stepped off the plane, I felt like, ‘I’ve been here before.’ The people embraced me and my music the first time I went there in the early `80s.” Beyond ‘Nawlins,’ fans around the globe never get enough of the inspired collaborations and creations of “Lady Tee,” Ms. Teena Marie.
