Martha Wash

An exuberant singer with a huge voice and booming, declarative sound, Martha Wash originally teamed with Izora Armstead. They were known as Two Tons o’ Fun when they backed Sylvester and later recorded for Fantasy. They changed their name to the Weather Girls and recorded for Columbia. Wash then began doing session work as a solo singer. She was in the midst of a big flap in the early ’90s, as she claimed that the C&C Music Factory didn’t credit her for vocals on its huge hit “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now).” It was Wash’s rich, shattering voice that turned “Everybody Everybody” into a smash for Black Box, but she wasn’t featured in the video, something else that didn’t make her very happy. Wash signed with BMG in 1991.