Simone Denny

Born and raised in Toronto, her parents are of Guyanese heritage. She discovered her passion for music while competing in a talent show in grade six,[2] later training as an opera singer but choosing instead to pursue pop music.[3] She quickly developed a following in local bands, landed the role of "Mama" in the Canadian production of Mama, I Want to Sing! opposite Deborah Cox,[3] and performed as a backing vocalist for artists such as Maestro Fresh Wes[4] and Devon.[5]

After meeting DJ Chris Sheppard, she contributed as a guest vocalist to several songs by his band BKS, as well as the songs "Tonight It's Party Time" and "I Can't Take the Heartache" by Barry Harris and Rachid Wehbi's band Outta Control (a/k/a Killer Bunnies).[3]

In 1997 Sheppard and Brad Daymond formed Love Inc., in which Denny was a full member.[6] They released their self-titled debut album in 1998;[7] the album spawned the chart hits "Broken Bones" and "You're a Superstar", with the former song winning the Juno Award for Dance Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards of 1999,[8] and became the first dance music album by Canadian artists ever to receive platinum certification for Canadian sales.[1]

Despite the band's initial success, the 2000 followup album Into the Night was more poorly received,[9] performing poorly on the charts and containing only one noteworthy hit single,[10] although the band did again win the Juno for Dance Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2001,[11] and critics praised Denny's vocals as the best thing about an otherwise weak album.[12] In this era, Sheppard was also beginning to develop a reputation for egotism: in early 2001, Denny had to back out of a previously-unannounced surprise appearance as a special guest who would perform several live songs at one of Sheppard's DJ shows at a dance club in Regina, Saskatchewan. The club cancelled the show outright since it considered Denny to be the real star of the event, but Sheppard tried to use legal threats to force the club to pay him anyway.[13]

The band did not release any further recordings, and broke up after Into the Night, with Denny attributing the breakup to Sheppard mistreating her because he felt like he was the true creative force behind the band even though Denny was generally considered its star.[1] Denny later noted that she had remained on friendlier terms with Daymond right up until his death in 2018.[1]

Denny then began collaborating with Widelife, performing on that band's singles "I Don't Want You" and "All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)", the latter of which was best known as the theme song to the original version of Queer Eye.[3]

In 2005 she released "Cliché", the first single on which she was directly credited as a solo performer. She subsequently appeared as a featured vocalist on several other dance singles before finally releasing her own full-length debut album, The Stereo Dynamite Sessions, Vol. 1, in 2015.[14]

In 2020 Denny appeared on CBC Television's New Year's Eve special, performing "You're a Superstar" with Tyler Shaw.[15] She has also continued to perform live shows, notably as part of an Electric Circus reunion bill of dance acts from the 1990s and 2000s.[16]

Studio albums

Singles