Nona Gaye: Enigma

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Why Hasn't He Said Something?

His Royal Badness, Prince Rogers Nelson has said nary a word on the passing of his musical rival, Michael Jackson.
Not that he's supposed to, but generally two masters in the same arena acknowledge each other in death, if not in life.
The two geniuses were musical opposites in their hey day, pushing each other to new creative heights.
"Thriller" was met by "Purple Rain."
"Bad" was countered with "Sign O the Times."
Prince was the do-it-all musician was Michael was the consummate performer.
You could be in both camps but you couldn't love both of them the same.
That's just how it was.
Now that one is no longer with us, the other's absence is stark.

The Inspirational Susannah Melvoin

Few people know that they have Susannah Melvoin to thank for some of the greatest music in the United States in the past 20 years.
Such classics as, "Adore," "The Beautiful Ones," "Nothing Compares 2 U", "If I Was Your Girlfriend", and "Forever in My Life," all composed by Prince.
Did Melvoin have a hand in producing these hits?
Nope. She was Prince's girlfriend.
And he wrote all of the aforementioned jams about her.
Talk about inspiration.
Prince had a serious jones for Melvoin, whom he met when her harder-looking twin sister Wendy joined the band. Wendy was 19 years old in the early 1980s when she was installed in the band as a charmer and disarmer of the older Prince.
Her twin sister, who was much more musically inclined, immediately caught Prince's eye.

When Prince and crew flew to Nice, France to shoot "Under the Cherry Moon,"
Melvoin was sporting a huge rock-ring, evidence that Prince had proposed. But once they landed and went to the luxurious hotel, Prince ordered one of his henchmen to fly her all the way back to Minneapolis. He cheated on her numerous times, and they broke up. But the Melvoin-inspired music is here to stay.

Prince Unveils New Protege'

The purple one recently unveiled another female protege, the prototype of which fits somewhere between a Vanity, a Sheila E., an Appolonia Kotero, an Ingrid Chevez and a Mayte.
Prince thinks of Bria Valente as a Sade, according to a recent article.
“We got sick of waiting for Sade to make a new album,” Prince told the New York Times. “This music is nasty, but it’s not dirty,” he said, referring to the sexual lyrics. “There’s no profanity. It isn’t promoting promiscuity. She’s singing about her lover, who could be her partner for life.”

Bria Valente, or Brenda Fuentes as her mother called her, hails from Minneapolis and has done background for Usher and danced for Prince for a few years. She's hot, but can she sing? And does it matter?
Check her vocals out at Lotusflow3r, Prince's Web site.

Wherefore is Susan Moonsie?

She was the silent one of the trio.
The killer was, she always wore white.
Camisoles.
Her name was Susan Moonsie.
Possibly, the most reclusive musical celebrity (except for her former bandmates) that you can think of.
Remember, Susan? She was the "exotic"-looking one of the girl goup Vanity 6.
As a former Prince girlfriend, Susan holds the distinction of being not only the only African American member of Vanity 6 but the girl who "When Doves Cry" was written about.

Her relationship with His Purple Badness was filled with cheating, mistresses and, of course, drugs, sex and rock 'n roll.
She came off as quiet, demure.
And hot.
That can't be denied. She and Prince dated off and on after being introduced to Prince in high school in Minneapolis. Their relationship soured after Denise Matthews aka Vanity entered the click, but Susan was originally supposed to lead Vanity 6 but didn't want the lead role.
But where is she today? Has anybody seen her? She was rumored to be 16 when Vanity 6 came on the scene (although it was highly unlikely.) If she went to high school with Prince, then she is probably around 47, 48, but no public pictures exist, that I'm aware of. The Internet has more information on Big Foot than it does Susan Moonsie.
Susan may have fallen off some 20 years after she emerged onto the American music scene, but one only has to download or pick up the first and only Vanity 6 album to hear her vocals. By what she put out in the early 1980s, she was Kelly Rowland to Vanity's Beyonce (not too shabby, either). It was Susan's vocals that carried half the album, including the club hit "He's So Dull." Unlike pigeon-holed girlgroups today, Vanity 6 covered the musical landscape with pop, funk, new wave and R$B music in as little as half a dozen songs. Today, that would get you dropped from a label.
Like the destinies of Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, Susan (and her bandmate Brenda Bennett) was too overpowered by the lead charisma of Vanity. But memories are hard to erase. And Susan, who was widowed after husband David Garfield was killed in a car accident in 1988, will always be remembered.