Chante Moore

Ebony, May, 1995 by Aldore Collier

CHANTE Moore sensuously blends jazz, blues and pop to woo and enrapture listeners with lush romantic ballads about ongoing and, in some cases, unrequited love.

Her videos for hit songs such as It's Alright and Love's Taken Over are filled with passionate, dreamy images of sexy women professing undying and unyielding love.

Although her first album, Precious, was only released about three years ago, the singer and the name Chante quickly have become synonymous with elegance and style. Her follow-up album, A Love Supreme, picked up where the hot-selling Precious left off.

Like her music, Chante's own personal life is filled with romance. For two years she has dated actor Kadeem Hardison, who starred in the long-running sitcom A Different World.

The two met briefly at a party but nothing came of it. She recalls telling him how much she loved the show and his acting. "He made a strong impression on me that evening after we shook hands," she says. "I didn't want to leave his side for some reason."

Whether it was fate or just plain luck, the two were chosen to present an award together in 1993 at the NAACP Image Awards. "We had to go backstage after the awards presentation and talk to the press," the young singer says. "And we were like, 'Okay.' He went, 'We'll just make our own announcement.' And I was like, 'What's that?' And he said, 'Oh, we're getting married. That's what we'll tell them. We're getting married.' By the time we got to the press room, he grabbed my hand and he didn't let it go the whole night. We were talking about children and everything by the end of the evening. It was an incredible evening. And we've been dating ever since."

The two spend a lot of their time together watching television and going to the movies. Probably to no one's surprise, Chante loves old, tear-jerky, romantic movies like Wuthering Heights, An Affair to Remember and Houseboat.

The couple, Chante says, are home-bodies and prefer not to hop from one Hollywood party to another unless it's necessary. "Sometimes it's necessary that I be out there bacause I'm not as established as much as he is," she points out. "But when we're relaxing we laugh all the time. I'm pretty goofy."

As would be expected, the subject of marriage has come up but nothing concrete has been decided--yet. "It's something we want to do," she says. "But right now, we're both working on our careers and trying to make sure that we're ready. We want to be absolutely, positively sure. And I think we both are sure. I think we will do it eventually. We both make each other very happy."

Another source of Chante's happiness comes from her music. Her musical style draws from several music genres, except the one she was raised on--gospel. Born in San Francisco and reared in San Diego, the third and youngest (she has an older brother and sister) child of a Church of God in Christ minister, the singer spent many of her waking hours singing gospel songs.

"I sang all the time, all the time," she says. "My family used to make me be quiet. They would say, 'Shut up, Chante. Don't sing all the time.' I didn't care how I sounded. It was a release for me. I sang with all the gospel albums, primarily Andrae Crouch and Edwin Hawkins."

Music was also part of her entire family's life. While living in San Francisco (they moved when she was 12), her mother (who recently died) sang, her father played the piano and her brother played the drums.

Oddly enough, Chante says at the time she did not sing well enough to be in any kind of musical group. That changed when, at the age of 16, she was asked to play Dorothy in a production of The Wiz.

"That was the first time I ever sang anywhere publicly. This lady from my church asked me to be Dorothy because I was young. And I thought, 'Okay, that makes sense,'" she says. "But she wanted me to sing and that didn't make sense. But I learned. And I had a good time. I think I sort of established some sort of measurement of my vocal ability. I didn't know I could touch people vocally. A little bug was put in my head. Some people said: 'You touched me and your voice is so beautiful, and I was crying at the end when you were singing.' And I'm like, 'Get out of here!'"

At that point she decided to pursue music professionally. She had done a little modeling, but at 5-foot-4, she was realistic about her limited options in that area. Chante, now in her mid-20s, participated in singing and dance shows in San Diego and got a chance to meet people in the music industry.

Six years ago her big break came when she met singer El DeBarge while performing in a musical production called Heat Wave in Los Angeles.

"It was a Motown production and some of their artists came by. El came backstage to say hello to us, and he and I became friends," Chante says. "We would talk and correspond. Through all of El's travels, his manager and I became friends. We would talk. His manager, Fred Moultrie, became my manager. I was asking him all kinds of questions about the industry. And he was like, 'I'll manage you.' And I didn't even have my demo tape. I had a manager before I had a deal."