re-christened "Jaya" and signed a record deal with Stevie B's label LeFrak-Moelis Records and her eponymous first album, produced by Stevie B, was released in the U.S. The album consisted largely of freestyle dance tracks written or co-written by Stevie B, who also provided backup vocals. The album's the first single, "If You Leave Me Now", was a hit in discos and debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in October 1989. After 18 weeks on the Hot 100, the song was still gaining in both sales and airplay—it ended up peaking at number 44 in February 1990— and remained in the Hot 100 for a total of for 26 weeks, an unusually long chart run for a single peaking outside the Top 40. The song did well in many markets but at different times, thus diluting its Hot 100 rank. It hit top 10 in several markets and made it to number one at the crossover powerhouse KMEL. The song hit number 14 on Billboard'''s Top 40/Dance crossover chart and number 25 on the 12-inch Singles Sales chart. Jaya's follow-up single, "One Kiss Per Minute", was a minor dance hit, but failed to make the pop chart and the third single from the album failed to chart as did another non-album single in 1993. Philippine debuts 1995 was a turning point in Jaya's musical career. Pilita Corrales, dubbed "Asia's Queen of Songs", noticed her voice after Jaya did an opening act for Corrales, Carmen Soriano, the late Bert "Tawa" Marcelo, and Elizabeth in the United States. Corrales then asked Jaya if she would like to return to Manila and record an album, to which she agreed. Jaya returned to the Philippines and signed a record deal with Viva Records in March 1995 and completed her first local album. Five songs were recorded in the US while the rest were done in the Philippines. Jaya is noted for being the Philippine music industry's female record holder of a seven-times platinum album. She was a big hit when Pinoys first heard her belt out soul ditties in 1996. Her winning the 1996 Metropop Song Festival via Danny Tan's "Sometimes You Just Know" made her the biggest star on the rise at the close of the last century. Her first album under Viva Records hit an all-time high of 9 times platinum. In 1997, she released her third album In the