Brought to you by Pistol PeteLuther Ronzoni Vandross, Jr was probably the greatest male R&B singer of his generation. During his career, Vandross sold 25 million albums and won eight Grammys including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times. He won four Grammy awards in 2004 including the Grammy for Song of the Year for the track Dance With My Father.
His breakthrough to major chart success came as lead singer with Change, and he went on to have a string of million selling hit solo albums, and successful collaborations with other artists, throughout the 80s and 90s.
During Vandross' entire career he was 'dogged' by questions regarding his sexuality. He never married, his name was never romantically linked in the media with women. Although Vandross never explicitly denied being gay, he never publicly acknowledged it either. He generally fielded questions by saying that his 'busy lifestyle' made marriage difficult and indicated that, in any case, 'it was not what he wanted.' Many gay publications have stated that Vandross' gayness was an 'open secret' in the music business, but even now it is rarely spoken of.
Read the rest at Gay for Today.
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