UB Soul Friday: Dance Music Legend CeCe Peniston Talks New Music

This weeks “UB Soul Friday” spotlights an artist who took the 90s by storm CeCe Peniston.

Her single “Finally” is one of the biggest dance records in history!

“UB Soul Friday,” spotlighting artists, albums, singles and videos that left a mark in R&B and Soul music!

CeCe Peniston is the girl that was born in Dayton, Ohio and spent her formative years in Phoenix, Arizona.

She has had her presence and voice requested personally by the late great Aretha Franklin for Aretha‘s private birthday party in Detroit, Pope John Paul II in Rome at The Vatican and the country of South Africa to be historically the first female entertainer to visit and perform after the abolition of apartheid, before fellow recording artist Whitney Houston.

CeCe Peniston was poised to become a major R&B/pop sensation.

CeCe had her sights set on a singing career since she was a little girl. Her first “break” came when she was in sixth grade and landed the lead in a production of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical H.M.S. Pinafore. “I always told my mother when I was small, ‘Mama, I want to sing!’” CeCe remembered. “But she didn’t realize until she came to that show that I really could sing. From that point I got a lot of support from my parents because they saw that I was serious and they felt I had the talent to make my dreams come true.”

CeCe’s teenage years were filled with talent shows, pageants and various performances around the Phoenix area.

She performed in plays and musicals and participated in talent shows while learning to play the piano.

The real testament of her talent was in 1987 when Peniston, still a high school student, landed a part in a local production of Bubbling Brown Sugar.

From their, she would earn her diploma and continue on to the University of Phoenix to study Liberal Arts.

In 1989, CeCe was crowned Miss Black Arizona and in 1990 she won the national Miss Galaxy Pageant.

CeCe stated participating in pageants helped her develop poise and stage presence and gave her a taste of what it meant to be a celebrity. “You’re a figure that small children and other people look up to. I would do speeches and little kids would come and talk to me. That was just very touching,” CeCe recalled.

It was hip hop/dance record producer Felipe Delgado (the aforementioned G.J. Wax Dawg) who put CeCe on the road to the big time.

Delgado invited CeCe to do some background work on a A&M Records rising female rapper Overweight Pooch.

The A&R staff at A&M was so knocked out by CeCe’s vocals that they offered her a record deal.

Before she knew it, CeCe was in the studio recording “Finally.”

Her first single ever released in 1991, “Finally,” immediately thrust her into the music industry world-wide and CeCe has continued with success ever since.

CeCe’s shimmering vocals with a pumping, feel good groove.

Her debut stardom fulfilled a lifelong dream. “It’s overwhelming!” CeCe smiled. “I knew that, through my perseverance and wanting to succeed, one day I would have something that would make me very happy such as a hit record. I just never knew it would happen this quickly!”

“Finally” reached the Billboard #1 chart and sold multi-platinum world-wide.

She became an international sensation and was considered to be one of the most successful dance club artists in the history of the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts.

Her signature Dance hit “Finally” went #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the UK Top 75. It became one of the biggest dance records in history to sell over 3 million copies worldwide.

CeCe thrust passed the one-hit wonder mark and was successful at scoring five major #1 hits within three years.

Some of those hits include the singles: “We Got A Love Thang”, “Keep On Walkin’,” I’m Not Over You” and in 2001 “Lifetime To Love” skyrocketed to Billboard‘s #2 dance chart.

Oher singles released that have achieved Top 40 status include: “Inside That I Cried”, “Crazy Love”, “I’m In The Mood”, “Hit By Love”, “Movin’ On”, “Before I Lay (You Drive Me Crazy)” with MCA recording artist JoJo of Jodeci, “I Know That He Loves Me Too” and “Nobody Else.”

CeCe Peniston was the leading nominee in the Billboard Music Awards, being nominated in four categories: three times in the dance category with “Finally” (Best New Artist, Best Female Artist and Best Director), and one in the R&B/Rap category (Best Female Artist) for the hit “Keep On Walkin’.”

Ultimately the song won two awards, and three of her singles released in 1992 would be listed within the Top 100 songs of the Billboard Year-End chart (at #20 with “Finally”, at #61 with “Keep On Walkin’.”)

By the end of 1992, CeCe received several awards for her achievements in the music industry. Three ASCAP Awards and Pop Songwriter of The Year.

She received another three awards as Best New Dance Artist, Best Dance Solo Artist, and for Best 12″ Dance Record at the Annual Winter Music Conference, as well as, the BMI Urban Award of Achievement.

The album itself was nominated on a Soul Train Music Award in’93 in the Best R&B/Soul Album – Female category.

By the end of 1993, CeCe Peniston was named #1 Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play Artist.

CeCe has continued to travel non-stop since 1991 by promoting her sophomore album release “Thought Ya Knew“, third release “Movin’ On“, Gospel compilation “Good News In Hard Times” and simultaneously touring to sold-out venues domestically and internationally in the Phillipines, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Korea, Australia, South Africa and Italy.

CeCe makes time for a true passion in her life too, her charitable work.

CeCe founded the CeCe Peniston Youth Foundation in 1997 and has helped to raise funding for many other organizations involving particularly HIV, women and children in need, AIDS, hunger and equality.

She has blazed a track on jazz artist, Jeff Larbes‘s album and two Phoenix Merry Christmas Arizona albums, with proceeds going to Multiple Sclerosis.

CeCe has been requested to perform for U.S. troops on the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1993.

CeCe has contributed her voice to numerous motion picture box-office hit soundtracks, graciously allowed the Oprah Winfrey Show to utilize two of her hits on request, performed live for the NBA, WNBA, and NFL, appeared in thousands of publications, loaned her hit single “Finally” to the Summer Olympics 2000 Closing Ceremony in Australia and made numerous guest appearances.

CeCe has successfully toured recently with Grace Jones, Peabo Bryson, Tasha Scott & Tony Terry in The WIZ performing throughout the U.S..

UB spoke to CeCe in 2012 and she told us about that experience; “Tasha is my girl! First of all what I loved the most about that is all of my friends were in the play with me. So we had so much fun, we were playing games on the stage and people didn’t even know. We were playing like little practical jokes. For instance we would play this game called pass the penny. We would put a penny in our hand and someone would be saying a line and we would just put it in their hand and they would be looking like why is their money in my hand (laughs)?” CeCe went on to say; “And one time I almost lost it, you know how I come down the steps right. Well one of the Winkies had put black stuff all over his teeth to blacken them out. So he looked a little snaggletooth. So I almost lost it, one of those real big loud laughs while I was singing. So the first thing is I had a good time, the second is I feel like it pushed me as an artist vocally, especially when I was hitting that real high note. I found a lot of different beats acting and singing wise.”

In addition to performing in successful runs of both “Treat Her Like A Lady” and “When A Woman Is Fed Up“, fulfilling a personal goal and dream.

CeCe has also been requested personally by former President Bill Clinton to perform at both of his Presidential Inauguration Ceremonies in Washington, D.C. and by Mrs. Hillary Clinton for her political achievement.

CeCe received the Governor’s Key to The State of Arizona for being a role model and for achievement, and CeCe was inducted into the Phoenix College Hall of Fame.

In 2015 CeCe and her family participated in Celebrity Wife Swap with Kellie Williams family.

“Nothing Can Stop Me Now”, a title truly fitting for CeCe’s life was released in 2014.

Since CeCe has released a string of singles including “Anything,” “Strokey Doke” with Shazam Conner from H-Town and the latest “Summer Hymnal” with Fleetwood Kelly.

CeCe Peniston has established herself as one of the paramount artists of the 90s and the new century. However, CeCe still has stayed true to herself and humble while fueling the deep passion for her artistry…just watch this talent extraordinaire keep the world-over fired up and jumpin’ for more and more.

Aries from UB recently caught up with the dance diva to talk about new music and legacy.

CeCe dishes on the new music she has been releasing lately and shares how her approach to music has changed.

She also plays the UB Lyric Game, and discuses acting.

Plus CeCe talks “Finally,” almost 35 years later and more.