Tara Leslye Kemp is an American singer best known for her two Billboard ''Hot 100'' top-ten

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

s in 1991: " Hold You Tight" and "

Piece of My Heart "Piece of My Heart" is a romantic soul song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. Franklin's single peaked in December 1967 at number 10 on the '' Billboard'' Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart ...

Career

Kemp signed to Giant Records in 1990, a new sublabel of the

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

music label. In January 1991, her self-titled album and debut single " Hold You Tight" were released. "Hold You Tight" became a hit, peaking at No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

; the song was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

and ranked as the twenty-fifth most successful single of 1991. The song also peaked at No. 69 in the UK Singles Chart. In May, Kemp released her second single "

," which reached No. 7 on the ''Hot 100'' in July and came in at No. 84 for the year. A third single, the ballad " Too Much," was released and peaked at No. 95. Following the release of her debut album, Giant began to interfere with Kemp's recording of her sophomore album. Wanting to sign to

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

– where most of the people who had signed her to Giant had moved to – Kemp asked to be released from her contract. However, Atlantic did not sign her. Kemp released two more songs: in 1993, "Action Speaks Louder Than Words" was featured on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

for the

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television series, ''

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''; and "Come Correct", which was released independently in 1994. Owing to issues in her personal life, she left the music industry soon after. In 2013, Kemp launched a Facebook page and YouTube channel containing new photography, uploads of vintage material, and teasers to a new track called "Water." In 2014 and 2015, Kemp revealed in interviews that she was working on new material. In April 2016, Kemp released "Paris in Spring" (featuring D'wayne Wiggins), her first single in 22 years, as a

charity single A charity record, charity album, or charity single is a recording with most or all proceeds raised going to a dedicated foundation or charity. In 1956, The Lord's Taverners released a 78 rpm disc which contained six tracks donated by popular artis ...

to benefit victims of the

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. In January 2021, Kemp revealed plans to independently release her shelved sophomore album and remastered versions of her 1991 singles. She is working with

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

-based Shakir Entertainment Management.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

External links

* Tara Kempat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kemp, Tara Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers American women pop singers American contemporary R&B singers Giant Records (Warner) artists Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area People from Livermore, California American dance-pop musicians New jack swing musicians