I love her voice-it's powerful and distinct. I'll always love her lone mainstream hit in 1988 "I Still Believe". I'll also love her for being a great person and giving a demo tape of one of her backup singers at the time (Mariah Carey) to Tommy Mottola Honestly, I think this may have negatively affected her career, as Mariah became Sony's focus and Brenda was pushed aside.


It's a shame she only had 1 mainstream hit and then her next album bombed so she was dropped from her record deal. Then she went off doing salsa music and never made it back into the spotlight. She's still doing her thing with minor gigs here and there all over the country, but she had the talent and looks to be a mega star...such a shame it never panned out for her. I think her biggest problem was she was given mostly terrible songs. She was a freestyle artist, and besides the "I Still Believe" ballad, I haven't liked any of her other songs. Her up-tempo tracks are really corny and I think her voice was too big for them.

anyway i thought i'd link her video and 2 live performances, as well an interview from last year in which she discusses mariah for a bit:





live performance #1





live performance #2





the interview in which she talks about mariah a bit (first 2 minutes). In the first part of this interview that i didn't link here but you can find on youtube, Bremda briefly mentions how Mariah was turned down 4 times for a record deal because they told her she was too much like Whitney. Really, Mariah owes Brenda her career She also talks about how she was going to have 2 songs on Selena's debut album before Selena was tragically murdered. Brenda also went to high school with Lisa from Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam.

"I Still Believe" is classic of course. i enjoyed "What You See Is What You Get" . she was doing pretty bland salsa music in recent years. she made the mistake of going after La India, dubbed Princess of Salsa by Celia Cruz herself.
India also started off as a freestyle artist. anyway. listen to the interview yourself. India brought up her trying to ride Mariah Carey's coat tails. !! they go at it!!


it is in English for the most part. i think Brenda comes in on part two.

MESSY!!!

geez La India sounds like a bitch I don't follow the salsa scene so I don't know the background of their feud, but you don't talk that on a live radio program.


Honestly, if Brenda is a little bitter about what happened with Mariah, I don't blame her. She was being a good person to help Mariah out, and then she was brushed aside and Mariah hasn't done anything to help her back. I'm a Mariah fan but it does annoy me that poor Brenda was edged out of the mainstream market.

Brings back memories of the old skool freestyle scene that was big in the 80s in NYC and Miami. Mostly Puerto Rican kids that had their momemnt in the sun.

TKA, Brenad K. Starr, Johnny O and Cynthia, Cover Girls, George Lamond, Expose and yes, Marc Anthony were all part of the scene.

Good Times. The genericfication of the radio will insure that something like this will never happen again.

I remember her... My first boyfriend bought me her debut CD along with Sa-Fire for Xmas that year. I love her. Wish I still had that CD!!!

I really liked parts of her second album, but by then, thats when freestlye crossed over into pop. Not really any freestyle on there at all really! A couple of killer cuts on her second disc though, but its very poppy!

mimi2 said:

Major pitch problems here, and far too nasal

wowugotit said

oh what a great memory! thanks for sharing.

thesexofit said

yeah such a shame that freestyle was popular only for a few years and then almost all of the freestyle acts became obscure from '91-'92 on

Ottensen said

true but Brenda always went for it in her performances and didn't hold back. She had some impressive notes in there too i agree she needed to work on her control though.

mimi2 said:

i read that she has helped her out when she was struggling and MC covered ISB as a thanks to Brenda.

missmad said:

you mean she helped her out financially? i don't know-i tried googling for it and couldn't find out anything, but kudos to mariah if it's true.

and yeah she covered "I Still Believe" as a tribute but Brenda didn't receive any royalties from it since she didn't write the song.

You know, I think the best way that Mariah could help out Brenda would be to do a duet with her on 1 song for Mariah's next album. That way Brenda will at least get something each time an album is sold or downloaded...

I just feel bad for Brenda...imagine being in her shoes.
[Edited 12/17/09 9:01am]

mimi2 said:

yea i think Brenda said some bad things about MC and MC said she's helped her out for a while when she needed it.


It would be cool but i think they relationship is now over cause of the stuff she said about MC.

I remember her In the spring of 1988,I bought her cassette,after hearing "I Still Believe" on the radio I also liked the follow-up single "What You See Is What You Get".It's a shame that her career fizzled out after this promising album.

A little trivia: Brenda briefly appears in the 1984 film 'Beat Street'.

mimi2 said:

Mariah's remake of "I Still Believe" is a snoozefest It doesn't have nearly as much power and emotion as the Brenda K.Starr original.

a young Brenda in the 1984 movie "Beat Street"