Comedy
Martha Wash is a singer of unparalleled power, soul, and courage, and has one of the most recognizable voices in music. Martha was raised in San Francisco, and started singing at age 3 after having heard her mother’s gospel records. Martha sang for her church choir, and had the benefit of an older brother who played guitar with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Taj Mahal. Her early influences included gospel artists like Mahalia Jackson, as well as Motown records from The Supremes and The Temptations. Martha’s high school choir recorded four albums in a professional studio and toured Europe, a rare opportunity for an urban high school student in the 1970s. She got her professional start in a trio put together by her music teacher that opened for jazz great Ernestine Anderson in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. She later became a background singer with her friend, Izora Armstead, for disco phenomenon Sylvester. Martha and Izora later recorded with former Motown executive Harvey Fuqua as Two Tons O’Fun, and later as The Weather Girls, and had a huge hit with “It’s Raining Men” (co-written by Paul Schaffer). One of her demos was later used on C+C Music Factory’s mega-hit “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”, but was attributed to a different singer, omitting credit for Martha. Martha sued the producers to simply be recognized for her contribution to the song, and was eventually credited for her vital contribution to one of the most popular tracks in music history. Martha later started her own record label, Purple Rose, through which she released her last two albums. She has expanded beyond dance music to embrace many different genres of music, as shown on her most recent album, “Love And Conflict,” available on the major streaming services. She has collaborated with artists such as Luther Vandross and RuPaul, showing the incredible range of emotion she is capable of expressing.