Luther Vandross (born April 20, 1951 in New York, New York) is an African-American soul singer. He started his singing career in the 1970s as a session vocalist, and eventually making his breakthrough as a guest singer with the group Chic. The first instant hit from him was "Searching." 



It was only in the 1980s that Vandross' career skyrocketed, with albums such as Forever, for Always, for Love and Give Me The Reason. When Vandross produced his 1989 greatest hits album, The Best of Luther Vandross...The Best Of Love, he ended up hitting the Top Ten for the first time with the power ballad Here And Now. 



More albums followed into the 1990s (beginning with 1991's Power Of Love), and Vandross hit the Top Ten again in 1994 with a duet featuring Mariah Carey, a cover of Lionel Richie's title song to the film Endless Love. A second greatest hits album, released in 1997, compiled most of his '90s hits. 



Diabetes runs in his family, according to his mother Mary Vandross. His father Luther Sr. died of complications of diabetes when he was five years old. In 2003, Vandross released the album Dance With My Father in memory of his father. The title track, which was dedicated to the memory of Luther Vandross, Sr., won Luther and his co-writer Richard Marx the 2004 Grammy Award for Song of the Year. 



Vandross has a close musical companion named Marcus Miller. He was inspired by Aretha Franklin, with whom he has produced many albums for. He did many remakes of old songs, such as "Since I Lost My Baby" (originally recorded by The Temptations), "Superstar (Until You Come Back to Me)" (originally recorded by The Carpenters and most recently recorded by Ruben Studdard), "Love Won't Let Me Wait" (originally recorded by Major Harris), "Always and Forever" (originally recorded by Heatwave), "Knocks Me Off My Feet" (originally recorded by Stevie Wonder), and "Lovely Day" (originally recorded by Bill Withers). He later inspired his J Records labelmate Ruben Studdard, the American Idol of 2002 who later updated the song "Until You Come Back to Me." 



He suffered from a stroke shortly after the release of Dance With My Father in 2003.