One of my favorite R&B singers Teena Marie, best known for her 80s hits “Square Biz,” “Ooo La La La” and “Portuguese Love” died last night of unknown causes in her LA home. She was 54.
Teena Marie was one of the few female artists who not only sang, but wrote, produced and arranged most of her material.
She was signed to Motown by Berry Gordy when she was 19, but years later got into a legal battle with the label. In the end she won a landmark lawsuit that declared it illegal for labels to keep artists under contract while refusing to release their work. It became known as the “Brockert Initiative,” after Marie’s real name. “It wasn’t something I set out to do,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2004. “I just wanted to get away from Motown and have a good life. But it helped a lot of people, like Luther Vandross and the Mary Jane Girls and a lot of different artists, to be able to get out of their contracts.”
Check out Teena Marie’s collection of soulful grooves on iTunes
