Crystal Waters (1964)

 music career

Waters first approached the music world in 1987 as a behind-the-scenes worker, writing demos for a production team known as the Basement Boys, securing a writing contract with Mercury Records in 1989 and began penning songs for recording artists.

In one of her assignments Waters penned a song called "Gypsy Woman" for dance diva Ultra Nate and recorded a demo cut herself of the song. The producers were so taken by her rendition that they drew up a recording contract with her for that one song, never passing it on to Ultra Nate.

The song became a worldwide hit, memorable for its "la da dee, la dee da" refrain and its often sampled keyboard riff. The track reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and found even more success in Europe, reaching #2 on the UK Singles Chart. Scarcely a year after its release, a new version turned up on the Red Hot Organization's Red Hot + Dance AIDS fundraiser disc , gaining its remixer his first real American exposure.

Despite some additional contributions by remixer Steve "Silk" Hurley, Waters' next releases were promoted only in the dance music markets, but she made an unexpected mainstream comeback in 1994 when the song "100% Pure Love" hit #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the longest charting singles on the Hot 100 at 45 weeks ("Gypsy Woman" remained on the chart for an average 16 weeks). Along with the single, the singer released her second album Storyteller, which sold over 284,000 copies in United States.

In 1996, Waters participated in the AIDS-Benefit Album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization, performing the song "The Boy From Ipanema".

Her 1997 self-titled album included another Top 40 US hit, "Say...If You Feel Alright," but mainstream success in the US has since eluded her. However, Waters remains successful on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play and the Hot Dance Airplay charts with recent hits like "Come On Down" and "My Time," both of which peaked at #1, the latter making top 40 in the UK. "Gypsy Woman"'s keyboard-chord was recently sampled on rapper T.I.'s 2006 mega-hit "Why You Wanna."

Also, as a side project, Crystal Waters wrote and voiced a single called "Right and Exact" under the alias Chrissy Ward in 1998.

In 2007 Waters finally embarked on a world tour, performing sold out shows in Russia, Egypt, the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and Dubai, among other locations. Also that year her track "Destination Calabria" hit the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart.

In May 2008, Waters issued the single "Dancefloor", giving Waters yet another Top 10 Dance hit.

"Never Enough" hit #20 on the US Dance Charts in February 2009.