R&B Bridgez: Celebrating The Incomparable Miki Howard

Miki Howard is known as one of the most prolific female vocalist in R&B. A legend in her own right. Miki Howard has garnered seven Top 5 hits, with two #1’s with the Soul Train Music Awards crowning her Best New Artist in 1988.

This week two of her album releases celebrated anniversaries; The self-tiled “Miki Howard” was originally released on October 24th, 1989 and the classic album “Love Confessions,” was originally released October 26th, 1987.

Born Alicia Michelle Howard in Chicago, Illinois, Miki Howard is the daughter of gospel singer Josephine Howard of the legendary, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group, The Caravans, and Clay Graham of the Pilgrim Jubilees. During her childhood in Chicago and Detroit, Miki Howard met some of the best singers of the day when they visited her family.

Among her earliest influences were family friends Dinah Washington and Aretha Franklin. Miki Howard also counted Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, Lena Horne, and Judy Garland among her favorite vocalists.

Miki‘s family moved to Los Angeles while she was in her early teens. Already aiming at a career in music, the 15-year-old Howard received her first break when she participated in a teen beauty contest. Augie Johnson, leader of the group Side Effect, happened to be in the audience; impressed with Miki‘s singing talent, he introduced her to Wayne Henderson, who signed the teenager to a contract with his At Home Productions. She also joined the lineup of Side Effect in 1978.

Miki was a seasoned session singer who backed up jazz great Stanley Turrentine, Wayne Henderson, Roy Ayers, Grover Washington, Jr., Dolly Parton, Esther Phillips, Philip Bailey, The Gap Band and others.

Miki Howard started to sought a solo recording contract, and in 1985 Atlantic Records gave Miki Howard a life changing opportunity. She recorded her first solo album with Atlantic in 1986, “Come Share My Love.” Her first hit was the album title track, Billboard R&B; Top 10 single “Come Share My Love, ” which peaked at #5. Miki followed that with her second hit, a remake of Glenn Miller‘s 1940 tune “Imagination,” which she had to fight to include in her first album.

Miki Howard‘s sophomore solo album, 1988’s “Love Confessions,” featured two R&B; chart hits, the top-five hit “Baby Be Mine,” and the Top 10 hit, “That’s What Love Is.” The latter was a duet with the late great Gerald LeVert, that reflected a real-life romance between the two singers that lasted until 1990.

In 1988, Miki Howard won the Best New Artist Soul Train Award and an NAACP.

Miki‘s self-titled third album was released in 1989, and proved her most commercially successful. The single “Ain’t Nuthin’ in the World” became Miki‘s first #1 hit on the R&B charts, and another song, “Love Under New Management,” followed it to #2. “Love Under New Management,” quickly became Miki‘s signature song until this day.

In 1992, Miki Howard signed a long-term contract with Irving Azoff‘s Giant Records and in 1993 and released “Femme Fatale,” the first album for the label. Buoyed by the success of the first single, the LeMel Humes-produced “Ain’t Nobody Like You,” was her second #1 R&B single. “Atlantic did a very good job building her fan base,” Azoff stated to Billboard of Miki‘s previous success. “We feel very fortunate having Miki on Giant. I consider she has the talent to be one of the great female entertainers.”

“Femme Fatale,” featured Miki‘s renditions of classic tracks originally performed by Dinah Washington (“This Bitter Earth”) and Billie Holiday (“Good Morning Heartache”).

By July of 1993, the relationship with her label had soured and she was released. Giant would go on to still release “Miki Sings Billie: A Tribute to Billie Holiday.”

A casting director saw Miki perform some Billie Holiday tunes at a New York City concert at Radio City Music Hall, and offered her a role playing Billie Holiday in the nightclub scene of director Spike Lee’s 1992 epic film “Malcolm X.” Which led to the above referenced album, that included her favorite Billie tune, “Don’t Explain.”

Outside of her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday, other film credits have included working with the late John Singleton in his 1993 movie “Poetic Justice” with global icon Janet Jackson and the late great Tupac Shakur. Miki‘s introduction scene, is a classic line from the film, “Jessie’s We Do Hair.”

After Miki‘s relationship with Gerald LeVert ended, Miki had a brief marriage that produced another child. By 1993, the singer had finally extricated herself from that marriage, a disastrous marriage that had a damaging effect on her career. As she explained to an industry trade; “I don’t want to go into details, but lets just say events that occurred during that relationship left me with challenges in the industry. For instance, I remember I was about to sign with RCA Records and the deal fell through. That was a crushing blow. With all that was going on in my life at the time, I decided to ‘retire’ for a while to get myself together.”

During that period, Miki Howard moved to Atlanta with her three children, where friends Chaka Khan, Cherelle, and Patti LaBelle comforted her in the aftermath of the divorce.

Miki released “Live Plus” in 1996 via Warlock, and a comeback album of original material, “Can’t Count Me Out,” in 1997. She toured with the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, playing the role of lead Dream, Deena.

“Three Wishes,” was released in 2001 to excellent reviews. The album earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Traditional R&B; although she lost out to Gladys Knight in that category, the nomination itself represented an artistic comeback for Miki.

After 25 years in the music business at that time, Miki was comfortable with her place in the industry and resigned to the compromises it demanded.

In 2001, “The Very Best of Miki Howard,” including her top R&B; hits from the late 1980s and early 1990s, was released on Rhino Records.

An album on the Shanachie label, “Pillow Talk: Miki Sings the Classics” was released in 2006. Followed by 2008‘s “Private Collection” and “I Choose to Be Happy” in 2015.

In 2016 Teyonah Parris, starred as Miki in TV One‘s ratings success “Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story.” Miki‘s duet and sometimes romantic partner, the late great Gerald LeVert was played by Darius McCrary. Miki Howard first shared her story on TV One’s award-winning biography series “Unsung” in 2011.

Miki Howard stated to Billboard, “I could never doubt myself around Gerald. He always pumped me up, making me feel like I was the best entertainer in the world. We later outgrew the romance, but he remained my champion. I really miss that.”

Earlier in 2022, Miki paid a tribute to Abbey Lincoln with “Throw It Away,” while in December of last year, Miki treated fans with the hot single “Number One Fan.”

UB Spoke to The Legendary Miki Howard in 2014 – Excerpts from The Interview!

UrbanBridgez.com: There’s a line in the new song where you say I’m no diva, I’m a solider.
Miki Howard: It’s being more of a leader, my diva days are over. You know how the divas are, they have to have everything done and clothed. I’m not the one, there are times where she don’t feel like putting on all that (laughs). My mic ain’t got to have no diamonds in it, it just has to work (both laugh).

UrbanBridgez.com: Your Unsung was superb and so eye opening, for those that didn’t see it, briefly tell us about the whole blackballed situation and how it effected your career?
Miki Howard: It was the most dreadful thing that could happen to anybody. People perpetuate rumors and they don’t even know why they’re doing it. So it’s was like, I’m not going to work with Miki, that bitch is so and so. It got so bad, that there were instances where I thought I had locked in a tour and they came back and said we don’t want you because so and so said this or that. My records had stopped being played, it was just really hard because I had three children. That’s why I say I’m a solider, because you solider through that. With my faith in God and the talent that he gave me and you just make it work. But like I say, you can’t be upset because at the end of the day I’m still here. I’m enjoying my life, my kids are grown. I feel bad for the people who perpetuated the mess, because I don’t know one of them that is doing like well or even happy. Some of them are not even here anymore.

UrbanBridgez.com: Karma!
Miki Howard: Right, you do reap what you sow! That’s what people don’t realize that we’re all connected. You hurt me, you hurt yourself.

UrbanBridgez.com: “Love Under A New Management” is and will always be a classic. Did you have any idea what type of anthem you were making when you recorded it?
Miki Howard: Really I just loved the song and I was excited to record it. I wanted to be like Aretha [Franklin] and those people, so I was looking for material. My record company at that time Atlantic Records/Sylvia Rhone hooked that song up. Gabriel and Annette Hardeman actually wrote it as a gospel tune. So we were looking for material that could measure up to people that we had looked up to. Since that song I’ve been in love under a new management, over new management, between (laughs). That’s actually how I Choose to Be Happy came about, in the end of me singing Love Under A New Management I talk about that at the end of the day you have to be happy with yourself. You have to be able to look in the mirror and manage what you have going on. That’s when you make that choice to be happy, no matter what it is. And if you ain’t happy, get happy!

UrbanBridgez.com: Off the top of your head, your top 3 favorite songs in your catalog?
Miki Howard: I love Ain’t Nobody Like You, Come Share My Love still makes me cry today. I don’t know after that, let’s see…I love Soon I’ll Be Loving You [Marvin Gaye] on the new CD. I really love that song!

UrbanBridgez.com: You have such an amazing on screen personality as well that I love like in Poetic Justice, would you ever do a reality show or any plans to?
Miki Howard: Thank you! Yeah, my whole life is a reality show. These people are just now getting cameras on them, cameras have been on me since I was a kid. In my mind anyway (laughs).

UrbanBridgez.com: We need the ones recording on you now (laughs).
Miki Howard: So many have tried, but they have to get the right stuff you know.

UrbanBridgez.com: You’ve always paid homage to Billie Holiday in such amazing ways, what was it about Billie that inspired you the most as a singer?
Miki Howard: I’m going to tell you and it may be weird. But I always liked the persona of Billie Holiday, I was a real small kid and didn’t really understand her type of singing. But I liked how she looked and just the type of woman she was. I wanted to be that type of woman. Where I come from like with my mom and everyone, they were those type of women. Just independent, beautiful, she was just everything. And she could sing, I was like yes! So then when I grew up and understood her type of singing, I wanted to bring that same thing to music if I could. I learned a lot from her.

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s the biggest misconception about Miki Howard?
Miki Howard: It use to be that I was mean and I was a bitch. Now it’s that I’m crazy, let the media tell it (laughs). I’m so happy, but people keep coming up to me like somebody died and hugging and kissing me telling me they love me. I’m like okay, but I’m good, I’m good. I didn’t read the stuff that people said about me, maybe one or two things. But I don’t care, I don’t give a sh*t. If I start talking about you, you might fold your tent and go home. So we don’t do that, it’s ugly. We just pray and play honey.

UrbanBridgez.com: Who are some current female artists that have came after you, that you’re a fan of?
Miki Howard: I’m everybody’s fan. I’ve loved everybody at some time or another. I love Rihanna, I love Beyonce’, who else is it?

UrbanBridgez.com: Umm Coko of SWV.
Miki Howard: Chile I love Coko, oh okay you talking about people like them too because they’re grown (laughs)! I love Coko, oh my god she can sing! Kelly Price, oh my lord she can sing. I just sit there and listen when she is on like God how can somebody sing like that? They are singing baby, I mean really singing. Ledisi, Jennifer Hudson, they’re singing for the gods! I’m telling you, they are really singing.

UrbanBridgez.com: I would like to see like a BET Special with you and some of those artists singing on one stage.
Miki Howard: It would be a lot of hollering, to see who can hit the highest note. I’ll tell you now, it wouldn’t be me (both laugh).

Take A Trip Down memory lane with The Incomparable Miki Howard!

UB Interview: Legendary Miki Howard Tells UB Why She “Chooses to Be Happy”