Austin (Thea)  EuroDance Member Added : 24/01/2000 Viewed 2592 times                                       94 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Singles

Featurings

Pusaka - Being Without You
Snap - Color Of Love	Mar 1992
Snap - Rhythm Is A Dancer	Jul 1992
Cutoff - Don't Stop (album)	1993
Turbo B - I'm Not Dead	1993
Cymurai - Magic Touch	1995
Engelbert Humperdinck - Release Me / Gotta Get Release	1995
Cymurai - Let Go	1996
Cymurai - Vibe (Sending Messages)	1996
Pound Boys - Funky Music	1998
Heart Attack - Eye Of The Tiger	25th Mar 1998
BFL - You Won't Know What Hit Cha	1999
Soul Searcher - Can't Get Enough	1999
Soul Searcher - Do It To Me Again	1999
Pusaka - I'm Addicted To You / You're The Worst Thing For Me	2001
Full Intention - Soul Power	2003
Beat Hustlerz - Just About Had Enough	Sep 2003

Songwriting

Cymurai - Vibe (Sending Messages)

1996

Biography

Thea Austin fits many categories -sultry diva powerful vocalist, producer, lyricist, stunning beauty, international performer. Yet her music defies categorization and crosses all world boundaries. Thea was born in Pittsbugh, PA. She has been fronting bands, among them Snap, and honing her vocal skills since she was in her early teens.

Several years ago her want for vocal success brought her to Los Angeles, looking for a recording contract. She started out performing in bars and clubs then soon began gaining session work as a background vocalist. Also a talented writer, Thea's love of music led her to a position as a staff writer at a major music industry magazine. She then got a taste of the business of promotion and hype, as well as insight into the workings of major labels and the shaping of new artists. Her contacts continued to grow. She did demos with such writers as Samm McKinney (Patti Labelle, Anita Baker) and Stephanie Mills. She started getting album credits with artists Bernadette Cooper and Christopher Williams."I was too comfortable at the magazine. I was wearing golden handcuffs. I had a successful career as a writer while trying to maintain one as a singer. I knew I was being sidetracked and had to dedicate myself fully to singing." she explains

That drive led her out of the country to Japan, where she opened the Club Blue Note and had the opportunity to jam with such artists as McCoy Tyner and Dizzie Gillespie. She spent almost a year in Japan, growing as a vocalist and experiencing new cultures. Upon returning to the US she immediately began work on a solo project. An accomplished lyricist, she penned songs with several successful producers. Her travels led her to Penny Ford, the former lead singer of Snap, who was working on a solo project. She sensed Thea's talent and introduced her to the Snap organization. Thea was whisked to Germany to begin work on Snap's album The Madman's Return together with the rapper Turbo B. She not only sang, but co-authored many of the cuts. Once the album was complete and the single released, a video was shot and a European tour planned.

As the lead singer of Snap she took the world by storm. The first single, Colour of Love soared into the top ten across Europe and reestablished Snap as a force with which to be reckoned. Thea began playing in venues from Italy to Germany, Turkey to the Red Sea. Suddenly, she was catapulted to international stardom. The second single Rhythm Is A Dancer was even more successful, taking a firm grasp on the number one position on numerous Billboard charts, including the Eurochart, Hits of the U.K. and charts in Germany, Italy and countless other nations with the video landing at MTV Europe #I. But, as always, she wanted more, so she left Snap in 1993, being replaced by Niki Harris.

"I have been very blessed to have such success with Snap across the globe. I cannot count how many lessons I have learned and how much total experience this has been. But I will not be satisfied until American success comes as Well. I want to do well in my own country, a country I have come to appreciate so much more now that I have been away so many times."

That success will not be difficult for her to achieve Her strong, sultry voice coupled with her beauty, both inne and outer, make her a natural. Her personal music is message driven, as she tries to combine the best of today's sounds with lyrics that sky a little more than what is on the surface. Thea is always working to expand her horizons. Not only a vocalist, she is an accomplished lyricist and producer. This is evidenced by her writing on cuts for Turbo B.'s solo project after he stopped his own group Centory, and co-writing and producing numerous tracks for her solo project Cutoff (together with 2 German producers T. Copperfield and T. Noise). The style was great eurodance, very similar as Snap's Rhythm Is A Dancer. In fact the first single Move was almost a copy of Snap's single. It was released in 1993 and had great succes in the Dutch and Israelian top 10. The second single was released in 1994, it was called You And Me, another great euro very succesful in Holland and Israel. A single entitlet Let Go was released under Thea's own name in 1996 and was remixed by ATB .

Among her other hits are the #1 Then Came You (with The Spinners) and the Grammy-winning That's What Friends Are For (with Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder and Elton John), as well as, Theme From Valley Of The Dolls, I'll Never Fall In Love Again Alfie, Anyone Who Had A Heart, Heartbreakers, and the Grammy-winning I'll Never Love This Way Again. She also worked with Cymurai, Soul Searcher on Can't Get Enough (which had a lot of success) and Do It To Me Again (# 32 in England), with Turbo B (I'm Not Dead), and in 1999 with BFL on You Won't Know What Hit Cha, a more downbeat single. Recently her vice was featured on Heart Attack 's single Eye Of The Tiger. She also did background vocals on Engelbert Humperdinck's album The Dance Album and in 2000 worked with Thunderpuss on the single I Just Wanna Be Your Everything. She earned seven Top 40 singles in the Eighties alone, among them collaborations with Luther Vandross, Johnny Mathis, and Jeffrey Osborne. Overall, she's garnered one platinum, five gold albums (including 1985's Friends) and five Grammy Awards.

4 April 2000 : Thea got chucked out of her own gig at the weekend by the promoter of the event. Her friend's mobile phone went missing backstage, and as a result, two riot vans of police turned up. Thea and the whole Soulsearcher posse were ejected from the club !

Thea says a reunion with an old flame led to her writing the latest track: "We just both got freed-up last year from long-term relationships. It was just a friend thing, and then it just developed into a huge romance." She also had a few wise words: "When you got a lot of desire you will find a way to get what you want!"

2001 : in the US she recorded tracks under the name Pusaka featuring Thea Austin. The song I'm Addicted To You (aka You're the Worst Thing for Me) was written by Thea, Chris Cox and DJ Irene, and then remixed by Chris Cox & DJ Irene. It had been heralded as THE anthem for the summer 2001, and was rushed out as a remix single on May 8th, by Tommy Boy Records. "DMA Magazine" gave this new song 5 Stars, and when it was tested at the Winter Music Conference in March, it turned out to be a smash hits with the DJ's ! It zoomed to the top of the Billboard dance charts, and became #1. It could be heard on radio, and on the hit TV shows "Queer as Folk", and "Sex in the City". The other song Thea recorded, Being Without You, is scheduled to be released in the UK this summer.

2003 : Thea's voice was featured by the project Full Intention for the house single Soul Power.

2004 : Thea still seems to be under contract with Snap, at least for TV appearences. Everytime Rhythm Is A Dancer is needed, Thea can be seen, wearing extravagant top hats.

2006 : Thea could release a new single entitled Delight In The Light Of Life in September. Then a new album Acoustic Austin could follow, at the beginning of 2007.

2009 : Thea was featured on DJ Bill Bennett's first album Big Muscle Of The Rhythm. In May, she published a new track on her Myspace. It was entitled Put My Feet On The Rock and it was a slow rock track. In July, she teamed with Natural Born Grooves and the result is a song called Bad Bad Baby.

Thea currently lives in Philadelphia, PA.

Thanks to Tavi Meran, DJ Aaron 'Euromaster', Anton "MC Kasper" Skaletsky and Denis "DJ Hooligan" Zhabkin
T-Best Talent Agnecy
BBC Online
Dance Diva In Demand

The biography was last updated Thu, July 23rd 2009

Links

Official websites

Thea Austin at Myspace

Fansites

Thea Austin at International Artists