Garrett was born on June 24, 1960, in Los Angeles and raised in Compton, where she started singing as a child.[2] Born Deborah Christine Garrett, she opted to change her name at age 13, because of the disdain she had towards her birth name. Garrett said, "It's a pretty name but nobody called me Deborah. It was always abbreviated to Deb, Debbie, or DeeDee. I hated it".[2] She later changed it to Siedah, which meant "shining and star-like".[3] As a teenager, Garrett was part of a five piece band called Black Velvet & Satin Soul, which performed Top 40 hits around various clubs. Garrett's mother was an interior designer who had singer D.J. Rogers as one of her clients. Rogers heard Garrett's singing abilities and recruited her as a background vocalist on his 1977 album, Love, Music and Life.[3]
Career
1980s
Siedah Garrett appeared as a contestant on Password Plus in 1980. Later, she joined the soul/funk outfit Plush, who released their self-titled album in 1982 on RCA Records. She soon began stepping out on her own as a solo artist. Her hits include "Don't Look Any Further" with Dennis Edwards (No. 72 pop, No. 2 R&B in 1984); "Do You Want It Right Now?" in 1985 from the Fast Forward soundtrack[4] (No. 3 Hot Dance Music/Club Play and No. 63 R&B), which was covered by Taylor Dayne in 1988 and later covered by Armand Van Helden in 2007 under the title "I Want Your Soul"; "Everchanging Times" from the movie Baby Boom (No. 30 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1987), and "K.I.S.S.I.N.G." (No. 97 in 1988). The latter song went to No. 1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. In the mid-1980s, she also toured and recorded with Sergio Mendes, appearing on three of his albums.
In 1987, Garrett was involved in Michael Jackson's Badalbum, singing a duet with Jackson on the number one single "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and co-writing and singing backing vocals on another number one, "Man in the Mirror". In a 2013 interview with Luka Neskovic, Garrett said: "All I wanted to do was give Michael something he would want to say to the world, and I knew it couldn't be another 'Oh baby, I love you' song. It had to be a little bit more than that. It needed to have some substance. He hadn't recorded anything like this to that point. I was just taking the risk that he might not get it, you know. First of all, I need to send it through Quincy because if Quincy didn't like it there is no way that Michael would've ever heard it. It was a huge privilege for me when Quincy decided that the song was good enough to play for Michael."[5]
Garrett and Jackson recorded a Spanish version of "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", titled "Todo Mi Amor Eres Tu" (translated to "All My Love Is You"),[6] as well as a French version titled "Je Ne Veux Pas La Fin De Nous", during the same recording sessions for the "Bad" album. A gifted musical sight reader with perfect vocal pitch (as most session vocalists are), the initial duet for "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" came as a total surprise to Garrett who simply answered the call expecting to only appear as a background vocalist. She initially felt intimidated with excitement when she entered the recording booth and noticed two music stands with sheet music that had lyric parts labeled "Michael" and "Siedah".
Garrett's association with Jackson enabled her to sing on several Quincy Jones albums of the 1980s and 1990s. Affectionately dubbed "Sid" by Quincy Jones, she co-wrote the hit songs "Tomorrow (A Better You, Better Me)" (originally an instrumental tune by The Brothers Johnson to which she added lyrics), "Back On The Block", and "The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)", in addition to performing lead vocals for "I Don't Go for That", "One Man Woman" and "The Places You Find Love", all on Jones' Grammy Award-winning 1989 Back on the Block album.
In addition, Garrett's 1988 solo album Kiss Of Life includes "Baby's Got It Bad", a version of Jackson's "Got The Hots" with rewritten lyrics. "Got The Hots" was an unreleased track from the Thriller sessions at the time, but has since been released.
In 1990, she became host of the show America's Top 10. In 1995 Garrett was also involved with Maysa Leak's (of the group Incognito) solo debut album as co-writer of the track "Sexy" in which she also sang backing vocals.
Garrett also toured with Michael Jackson from 1992 to 1993 on his Dangerous World Tour, singing backing vocals and duetting with him for "I Just Can't Stop Loving You". In the Dangerous album, Garrett also wrote a song "Keep the Faith" with Michael Jackson and Glen Ballard, the co-songwriter of Man in the Mirror. She appears in the concert film "Michael Jackson Live in Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour".
In 1996, she joined the Brand New Heavies, collaborating on just one album, 1997's Shelter. As part of the band, she co-wrote their top 5 hit "Sometimes" and enjoyed a minor hit with a cover of Carole King's "You've Got A Friend". Garrett left the group in early 1998 to concentrate on her own songwriting. In 1997, she wrote "Be Good or Be Gone" for Edyta Górniak.
Garrett supported Madonna as a backing singer and dancer on The Re-Invention Tour in 2004. Garrett's professional involvement with Madonna goes back some years as she previously supplied backing vocals on some of Madonna's earlier material including True Blue (1986), and Who's That Girl (1987).
In 2006, Garrett contributed her songwriting services to Bill Condon's film adaptation of Dreamgirls, providing lyrics for two of the four new songs added to the score. One of her compositions, the Jennifer Hudson solo "Love You I Do", earned Garrett a nomination for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song. At the 50th Grammy Awards Garrett along with Henry Krieger won the Grammy for Best Song-Motion Picture TV, Visual Media for "Love You I Do".
Garrett co-wrote four songs for the 2011 film Rio, where she is also a featured artist on the soundtrack on the song "Funky Monkey". The song "Real In Rio" (co-written by Garrett, Sergio Mendes, and Carlinhos Brown) was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song.
In 2011, she appeared on American Idol singing with contestants Haley Reinhart, and most notably Jacob Lusk, with whom she sang her song "Man in the Mirror". (Air date 04/06/2011)[7]
Garrett's single "Keep On Lovin' You", a tribute to Michael Jackson and an answer to their duet I Just Can't Stop Loving You, was made available on iTunes September 11, 2012.
In 2017, Garrett was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The National R&B Music Society[8][9] in Philadelphia, Pa. The award was presented to Garrett by recording artist Kathy Sledge of Sister Sledge.[10]
In 2019, Garrett attended Kingvention, the European Michael Jackson Convention which took place in Central London on September 21, 2019. Garrett spoke about her time with Michael Jackson in a live interview with Pez Jax and performed "Man In The Mirror".
"Betcha" (Jon Anderson, In The City Of Angels CD) (CBS Records, 1988)
"Right Out of My Head" (Boz Scaggs, Other Roads CD) (CBS Records, 1988)
"Crimes of Passion" (Boz Scaggs, Other Roads CD) (CBS Records, 1988)
"The Night of Van Gogh" (Boz Scaggs, Other Roads CD) (CBS Records, 1988)
"The Places You Find Love" (Barbra Streisand, Till I Loved You CD) (CBS Records, 1988)
"Best of Times" (Peter Cetera, One More Story CD) (WB, 1988)
"Peace of Mind" (Peter Cetera, One More Story CD) (WB, 1988)
"Kiss Me the Way You Did Last Night" (Carpenters, Lovelines CD) (A&M Records, 1989)
"The Secret Garden" (Quincy Jones featuring Al B. Sure!, El DeBarge, James Ingram and Barry White, Quincy Jones, Back On The Block CD, Qwest/Warner Bros., 1989)
"Higher Than High" (Tony LeMans, Higher Than High 12") (Paisly Park / WB 1989)
"The Best Man" (Glenn Medeiros, Glenn Medeiros CD) (MCA Records, 1990)
"What He Has" (Thelma Houston, Throw You Down CD) (Reprise, 1990)
"Do You Love As Good As You Look" (Jellybean, Spillin' The Beans CD) (Atlantic, 1991)
"Tell Me" (Go West, Indian Summer CD) (Crysalis Records UK, 1982)
"Commitment Of The Heart" (Clive Griffin, Clive Griffin CD) (550 Music / Epic, 1993)
"I Never Even Told You" (Tia Carrere, Dream CD) (Reprise, 1993)
"Love Talk to Me" (Cindy Mizelle, Cindy Mizelle CD) (East West Records, 1994)
"This Too Shall Pass" (Phyllis Hyman, I Refuse To Be Lonely CD) (PIR, 1995)
"Sexy" (Maysa, Maysa CD) (Blue Thumb Records, 1995)
^Young, John (April 7, 2011). "'American Idol' behind the scenes: 'Idol' coaches talk the Top 9 -- EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 7, 2011. He (Jacob Lusk) was also very excited to have [the song's co-writer] Siedah Garrett on stage with him. That added an extra element — that he could walk over and sing a portion of this song with her. Siedah delayed her flight to Malaysia to do Idol. It was an extremely expensive ticket to change, because she was doing a corporate gig in Malaysia. But she wouldn't miss this opportunity to save her life.
