Will Downing talks with The BTM CLUB.

Early life edit Downing was born and raised to a working-class family in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.[1] His father was a skycap at a local airport and his mother was a schoolteacher.[1] As a teenager, Downing was a member of a school choir.[1] At age 16, Downing sang demos for publishing houses for songwriters who couldn't sing well, earning $50 each.[2] Downing attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York,[1] graduating in 1981 along with future Motown Records president Kedar Massenburg.[3] Downing then attended college at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia for one year but dropped out to pursue a music career.[1] His parents were not happy with his decision to leave school; all of his siblings had professional jobs.[2] Career edit After college, Downing moved back to New York City. In 1983, he was the vocalist for a house music group.[2] He was then a backing vocalist on albums by Jennifer Holliday, Kool & the Gang, Mariah Carey, Gerald Albright, Billy Ocean, Regina Belle and Mica Paris and later sang with Wally "Jump" Junior.[3][1] In 1988, Downing signed a recording contract with 4th & B'way Records, and released his first solo album, Will Downing. It included a cover version of the John Coltrane piece, "A Love Supreme",[1] which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs record chart.[4] Downing switched to Island Records for his second release, Come Together as One (1989).[1] In 1991, he then released A Dream Fulfilled, which was his first commercial success, and included his rendition of Angela Bofill's "I Try". He switched labels to Mercury Records for his fourth outing, Love's the Place to Be (1993).[1] He remained with Mercury for two more albums, Moods (1995) and Invitation Only (1997), both of which sold well.[1] All the Man You Need, released on Motown Records, received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Traditional R&B Album in 2000. The album included "When You Need Me", a duet single with Chante Moore.[5] In 2002, Downing received the International Association of African-American Music Diamond Award.[6] He released Love, Lust, & Lies: An Audio Novel in 2010.[1][7] In 2014, he was the opening act for Patti LaBelle.[8]