These artists found success in the 1990s pop scene, with some forays into folk-pop and R&B. But they essentially disappeared from the mainstream shortly after their big hits. Here’s what happened, and what some of them are doing now.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C, aka Colleen Fitzpatrick, embarked on her solo career in 1999 with the debut album Vitamin C. This album spawned the everlasting high school senior slideshow song, “Graduation (Friends Forever)”. You know, the Friday before the graduation ceremony, when the senior class gathers in the auditorium to watch a farewell slideshow that you and your friends conveniently forgot to contribute to, so you sit there and suffer through photos of people you can’t stand, popular girls holding each other and sobbing in the front row, jocks throwing catcalls and insults at every other photo. And all this backed by one of two songs: either “Graduation (Friends Forever)” by Vitamin C, or “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day. Sometimes both, if they really want you to suffer.
Anyway, Vitamin C never managed to replicate the 1990s pop success of “Graduation (Friends Forever)” and quietly left the public-facing music industry. She did some acting, but later built a career behind the scenes. In 2012, she served as the Vice President of Music for Nickelodeon, and in 2019, was appointed as a music executive at Netflix.
Blaque
Blaque was a pop-R&B girl group formed in 1996 by Shamari Fears, Natina Reed, and Brandi Williams. They were closely tied to TLC, for whom Reed did some songwriting, and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes actually encouraged them to audition for Sony Music. This landed them a deal with Columbia Records, and in 1999, they released their self-titled debut album. The trio toured with NSYNC that year, and later with TLC.
Despite being a 1990s pop hit, Blaque’s popularity quickly disappeared after they were unexpectedly dropped from Columbia Records. Their second album, Blaque Out, was never formally released. Instead, it was leaked online, then later released on iTunes. Tragically, the group disbanded in 2012 after Reed was hit by a car and killed. Blaque made a few studio albums in the 2000s that were supposed to be released, but were constantly shelved. Private Show and Torch were both made between 2005 and 2009. Luckily, the remaining members released Torch in 2019 under their own label, Blaque LLC/The Move Entertainment.
Paula Cole
Paula Cole was a breakout star for a while in the 1990s pop-folk scene, beginning with her joining Peter Gabriel’s 1993 Secret World Tour. By 1995, she released her debut album, Harbinger. She signed with Warner Bros. Records and released her second album, This Fire, in 1996. This album spawned two of her biggest hits, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” and “I Don’t Want To Wait”. The latter was used as the theme song for Dawson’s Creek, bringing Cole much more attention.
Cole ran in singer-songwriter circles with artists like Melissa Etheridge, Sarah McLachlan, Suzanne Vega, and Lisa Loeb. She was also a headliner for the 1997 and 1998 Lilith Fair tours, bolstering her popularity among the 90s folksy woman artist crowd. While Cole seemingly disappeared from the mainstream music scene, she didn’t completely leave it. In March 2024, she released her 11th album, Lo, and the next year appeared in the documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery—The Untold Story.
Photo by Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
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