Milira
Milira Jones (born September 27, 1969), better known as Milira, is an American R&B/soul singer born in Hollis, New York. She released two albums in the 1990s and had four charting singles on Billboard's R&B singles chart, with two peaking top 40.
Milira | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Milira Jones |
| Also known as | Milira |
| Born | September 27, 1969 Hollis, New York, U.S. |
| Origin | Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | R&B, soul |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Labels | Motown Records |
Biography
Milira Jones was born in Hollis, New York.[1] She won amateur night at the Apollo Theater in the late 1980s, which led to a recording contract with the Apollo record label distributed through Motown Records. Jones was influenced by jazz musician Sarah Vaughn.[2]
Career
Prior to signing with Motown, Jones released her debut album in 1990, Milira. Her debut album spent 42 weeks on Billboard, reaching number 29 on the R&B albums chart.[3] It scored two top 40 R&B singles, "Go Outside in the Rain" (#36) and a cover version of Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" featuring Noel Pointer (#21).[4]
In 1992, Milira released her follow-up album, Back Again!!! and two songs from the album charted on Billboard's R&B singles chart, "One Man Woman" (#45) and "Three's A Crowd" (#94).[5] Jones released her third album titled, Solution which was Christian & Gospel themed with a mixture of R&B and Soul and also it was released under her own personal record label, Arilim Records and the CD album was released on September 12, 2000. But after the release of the Solution album, it turned out to not be very successful so for many years the album was very rare, hard-to-find, and out-of-print until it finally became available in the iTunes Store. After leaving the industry she became a school teacher at August Martin High School, then onto Jamaica High School both located in Queens, New York. She retired from teaching due to a motorcycle accident where she sustained severe injuries. She is now a Real Estate investor in North and South Carolina. Now after 19 years from the music industry, Jones released her new album No Mo Pain on March 14, 2019.[6]
Discography
- Milira (1990)
- Back Again!!! (1992)
- Solution (2000)
- No Mo Pain (2019)