(March 13, 2025). Dawn Robinson surprised her longtime fans when the former En Vogue member released a YouTube video (March 11) announcing she’s been living in her car for the past three years… essentially homeless. She has described the experience as both a “challenge” and a “personal awakening,” while seeking sympathy from no one.
For those who need a refresher, Robinson was one-fourth of one of the biggest-selling female groups of all-time (second only to TLC in the 1990s) who recorded smash hits like “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It),” “Hold On,” “Lies,” “Giving Him Something He Can Feel,” and “Free Your Mind.” She was also one-third of the R&B supergroup Lucy Pearl, which she formed in 1999 with Tony! Toni! Toné! founder Raphael Saadiq and A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
En Vogue’s first three albums — on which Dawn shared lead vocals — were certified platinum or multi-platinum and have reportedly sold a combined ten million copies worldwide.
When Robinson left En Vogue in 1997, they were riding high with a smash on which she sang lead, “Don’t Let Go (Love),” which was featured in the motion picture Set It Off and ultimately became their biggest international hit, reaching the top 20 in 18 countries including No. 2 in America (and No. 1 R&B). It was the last single she performed on an En Vogue album, and it sold 1.3 million copies — more than any of the former quartet’s previous hits.
But that was when Robinson did the unthinkable, the unforgivable. She challenged the system… and ultimately left the group.
Prior to the recording of their third album, EV3, the four Oakland divas, which also included Maxine Jones, Terry Ellis, and Cindy Herron, were mired in a contract that was paying them next to nothing for a group whose first two albums generated five No. 1 R&B hits and sold a combined eight million copies. Here’s how Dawn (and other members) have broken it down in interviews over the years.
For their first album, Born to Sing (1990), the group members each received a $10,000 total payment for completing the album and just two cents per album sold. It’s unknown what the contract said about singles sales (“Hold On” sold a million copies itself), but still… two pennies per album?! With the LP eventually selling 3 million copies worldwide, that amounted to roughly $60,000 each (plus the $10K) — far from the wealth one might expect from a platinum-selling act.
By the time they released Funky Divas (1992), which sold 5 million copies worldwide, they were still under the same contract. Their earnings improved slightly — about $110,000 each — but still paled in comparison to the millions the album generated. Add in touring revenue, and they were making decent money, but nowhere near what one would expect for a group dominating the charts, especially when considering how the two albums’ royalties were stretched over a three-year period.
Most of the album sales revenue went to the label (Atlantic Records), covering production, promotion, legal, and distribution costs. But, according to Robinson’s past interviews, a sizable chunk also went to the group’s founders and producers, Foster & McElroy, who earned even higher royalties than the singers did, plus additional money as songwriters. Since En Vogue didn’t write their own songs on Funky Divas, they received no publishing royalties, further limiting their income.
By the mid-‘90s, Robinson began questioning the contract terms, reportedly facing pushback from both the label and her producers. She also said she was promised a solo album – like the one group member Terry Ellis released in 1995 – but it was shelved by the label. Though En Vogue eventually renegotiated their contract, Robinson had already decided to leave, walking away just as “Don’t Let Go (Love)” — the group’s biggest hit — was peaking.
Some have argued that Robinson was the most talented of the group, a theory that would be tested when she left prior to the release of EV3. Initially, it appeared that the “Don’t Let Go” singer would have the upper hand when she joined childhood friend Raphael Saadiq and Shaheed Muhammad in 1999 to form Lucy Pearl. Within a year, it was that new trio that had top ten chart success while En Vogue, now also a trio, failed to find their footing (or at least to the level of success they’d previously enjoyed).
Dawn forewent signing a solo contract with RCA Records in the hopes that Lucy Pearl would take off. They did briefly, but again, Robinson’s money wasn’t working out right. Album delays and another bad contract (very little advance funding) — Dawn contends — caused her to lose her home after she fell behind in mortgage payments. She blamed Saadiq for this as the Lucy Pearl self-titled album experienced an 11-month delay. She claimed in multiple interviews that, after she joined Lucy Pearl and “had his back,” the “Feels Good” singer had promised to help her financially until the album was released but reneged. Just one month after their second hit single, “Don’t Mess With My Man,” came out, Dawn left that group.
While it’s not clear how different her financial circumstances are from her former En Vogue group mates, Robinson has described her current situation as both a challenge and a personal awakening, making it clear she isn’t seeking sympathy. There are obviously more details to her story, including a marriage from 2003-2010, brief reunions with En Vogue, and a period of residing with her parents prior to her recent plight. It is also not clear whether Dawn continues to tour as a source of income since she (along with former member Jones) lost the rights to use the En Vogue name years ago. But her story is a cautionary tale — a reminder of how the music industry, particularly in the pre-social media era, often left even its most talented artists struggling financially. (Readers may recall how Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC famously described in the ‘90s how that trio’s contract left them broke even after selling ten million copies of their first two albums.)
Even today, an artist of Robinson’s era is likely not seeing the benefits of unlimited access to her songs via streaming services. Take “Don’t Let Go (Love),” the group’s most streamed song on Spotify with roughly 127,000,000 clicks (as of March 13). Spotify typically pays artists and estimated $0.003 to $0.005 per stream. At the highest rate, En Vogue has cleared $635,000 over the past 13 years that Spotify has been active, or $48,846.15 per year. When divided by the four members, that equates to $12,211.54/year, assuming that the group’s royalties aren’t still governed by terms similar to what they signed in 1989 (where the producers received a lion’s share of the profit).
In today’s landscape, where artists — even less talented ones — can monetize their personal brands in ways that weren’t possible in the ‘90s, one can’t help but wonder how different the “Giving Me Something He Can Feel” singer’s career might have been with the right platform. Whatever the case, Robinson’s voice and impact remain undeniable, and her fans will no doubt be rooting for her next chapter.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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