Michael Watford

House music vocalist renowned for his gospel-influenced releases. Born in Suffolk, Virginia, on July 20, 1959, Watford grew up largely in Newark, New Jersey. His mother, the Rev. Betty Brower of the Clinton Memorial AME Zion Church, was a gospel singer who performed in the 1970s with [a=The Alvin Darling Ensemble]. His stepfather, George Brower, was also a gospel singer. As a boy, Watford sang in the choir at Greater Bethel Baptist Church on Morris Avenue in Newark. After high school, he joined a gospel quartet, the Mack Zion Rens, where he sang with his stepfather. Watford's first record, Baby Love, a collaboration with New Jersey house collective [a=Smack], featured on [m=137863] in 1989. A follow up, [m=136660], produced by Smack and reworked by [a=Roger Sanchez], came in 1991 and was championed by [a=Timmy Regisford] and [a=Merlin Bobb] at The Shelter and [a=Tony Humphries] on his weekly radio show on WRKS (Kiss FM) and in his marathon sets at Club Zanzibar in Newark. The track featured on [m=142581] in 1992 and propelled Watford to a major label deal with Bobb's [l=EastWest Records America]. The album’s first single, [m=136661], was released in the summer of 1993, but it was the follow up, [m=136665], remixed by [a=Bobby D'Ambrosio], that proved to be Watford's biggest song, which he promoted with a video shot at Zanzibar and club PAs on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1995, Bobb left EastWest and moved to Elektra. Watford was left behind, then dropped by the label. Watford continued to collaborate with new and established producers well into the late 2000s, in the US (including Smack again), the UK, Italy, Switzerland and Japan; occasional releases continued into the late 2010s. In recent years, he managed a string of karaoke bars in New Jersey before taking an administrative job at a welfare office in Essex County. Watford died in Newark, Jersey on January 26, 2024, aged 64.