Anita Baker(born January 26, 1958, in Toledo, Ohio, and raised in Detroit, Michigan) is an American R&B/soul jazz singer-songwriter.Anita Baker has won eight Grammy Awards, and has four platinum albums and two gold albums to her credit.
She released her second album, Rapture, in 1986. Produced by her friend Michael J. Powell (from the Detroit soul band Chapter 8), Baker wrote several tracks for the album herself including "Been So Long" and "Watch Your Step", and co-wrote the single "Sweet Love" which became her first mainstream hit; it peaked at number eight on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, number two on the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, also making the Top 20 in the United Kingdom. "Caught Up in the Rapture", "No One in the World", and "Same Ole Love" also became major R&B and adult contemporary chart hits during 1986 and 1987. Rapture remains Baker's biggest-selling album and went on to sell nearly eight million copies worldwide. It also earned Baker two Grammy Awards in 1987: Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female for the album and Best Rhythm & Blues Song for "Sweet Love". A show from Baker's world tour, entitled A Night of Rapture, was filmed and released on home video (and DVD in 2007).
In 1987, Baker collaborated with The Winans on the single "Ain't No Need to Worry", which earned Baker her third Grammy Award the following year, in the Best Soul Gospel Performance by a Duo or Group, Choir or Chorus category.
On August 6, 2012, Baker debuted the first single from her new album Only Forever. The song, "Lately", is a remake of the 1999 hit by R&B singer/actor Tyrese and was produced by The Underdogs, Anita Baker, and Don Was. The track premiered at 10 a.m. on all Urban Adult Contemporary radio stations run by Clear Channel. By playing the single every hour on the hour throughout the day, she became the first artist to make this kind of debut on Urban Adult Contemporary radio. "Lately" was available for digital download on August 7, 2012 on iTunes.
The new album Only Forever is slated for an October 23, 2012 release via Blue Note Records/EMI.
I APOLOGIZE
BODY AND SOUL
ANITA BAKER CD's
1983: The Songstress
1986: Rapture
1988: Giving You the Best That I Got
1990: Compositions
1994: Rhythm of Love
2004: My Everything
2005: Christmas Fantasy
2012: Only Forever
