Lifelong Chicagoan and legendary disco diva Loleatta Holloway has one of the most recognizable voices on 12-inch vinyl. Most people know her from vintage disco classics such as "Love Sensation" and "Relight My Fire." In 1991, rapper Marky Mark ( now known as actor Mark Wahlberg ) sampled Ms. Holloway's hit "Love Sensation," re-lighting the fire under that song. In 1996 a 13-track Greatest Hits ( The Right Stuff/Salsoul ) disc was released including the aforementioned "Love Sensation," as well as "Catch Me On The Rebound" and "Runaway," to name a few.
GS: A club collection of your work, that was released not too long ago, declared you the "Queen of the Night."
LH: OK.
GS: You could also be considered "Queen of the sample" as your vocals have been sampled on many dance tracks.
LH: ( laughs ) Yeah.
GS: What do you think of having that distinction?
LH: It's great. If I was getting the residuals for that, it would even be better. But I love the fact that I'm still out there like that, being in the field. That means a lot.
GS: Dance music, which has always been had a stronghold in the underground scene, seems to go in and out of fashion with the mainstream culture. What's kept you going during the times when dance music was less popular in the States?
LH: The music that they call disco, which nobody seems to admit anymore, was the thing and the time when people were the happiest. No one really had a problem. Everyone came out to party and that was it. You didn't have to dress up. It didn't matter what size you were. If they loved you, they love. Now, you have to be small, you have to be willing to show everything. It's a clique and if you're not in the clique, then you're not in it at all. I was fortunate enough that they loved my music and they just kept playing me.
GS: Do you also have a large following in Europe?
LH: Yes. And Japan, too.
GS: Do you go there and perform on a regular basis?
LH: I've been to Japan the last three or four years.
GS: The vocal sample from "Love Sensation" that was used on Marky Mark's song "Good Vibration," certainly exposed you to a whole generation of music lovers. What did it mean to you have a song from your past reach an entirely new audience?
LH: I love it. It's great. It's fantastic. It's everything that anyone in the field would love, any artist would love to have that happen with a song.
GS: Dan Hartman, who wrote "Love Sensation," and for whom you provided vocals on a few tracks, including "Relight My Fire," died of AIDS complications in 1994. What kind of an impact has the AIDS crisis had on you?
LH: Oh ( takes a deep breath ) , so many friends of mine passed away. I don't know if that's why they zeroed disco out. The disco guys were known for disco. Girls such as my self could come out and they just loved you. That's what kept me going all this time. The gay audience. They kept me alive. If it wasn't for them I don't know how I would have made it. Really. They kept me alive, totally.
GS: Have you been working on any new songs?
LH: Yes. I'm always working on music. I work with a woman named Yvonne Turner. She's a producer and she's produced different people such as Lisa Stansfield and Whitney Houston. She's from New York and we work together producing music. We wrote a song for the Japanese ( market ) called "What Goes Around Comes Around." We wrote the lyrics.
GS: Will that be released in the States?
LH: I don't know if they're going to release it in the States, but they most definitely released it in Japan. It seems to do pretty well there.
GS: You are the first artist to perform at the Square One Party, which is on Sept. 6 at Double Door. The party is being billed as "the first in a series of events dedicated to going back to the roots of dance music" in which homage is being paid to the "pioneers and innovators" of that style of music. How do you feel about being considered a pioneer and innovator?
LH: I feel honored. Very honored.
