Cecilia Veronica "CeCe" Peniston (; born September 6, 1969) is an American singer and former beauty queen. In the early 1990s, she scored five number one hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play. Her signature song "Finally" reached the number 5 spot on the Hot 100 and number 2 in the UK Top 75. Peniston has performed at private engagements for Aretha Franklin's private birthday party in Detroit, Michigan, Pope John Paul II in Rome at the Vatican (as a member of the gospel band Sisters of Glory) and the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, during both of his inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C. She was the first foreign female entertainer to perform in post-apartheid South Africa. According to Peniston, her vocal range vacillates between "five to seven octaves". In February 2011, Peniston signed a record deal with West Swagg Music Group/Bungalo Records, with full distribution through Universal Music Group Distribution, and announced release of a new solo album 15 years after her last studio set (I'm Movin' On from 1996 on A&M Records). By the end of the year, however, only three digital singles had been issued including a new song called "Stoopid!", and two cover versions of her prior hits, "Keep On Walkin'" and "Finally". In December 2016, Billboard magazine listed her among the 100 Top Dance Club Artists of All Time (as the 52nd). Biography 1969–90: Early life Peniston was born in Dayton, Ohio, in United States, but spent the majority of her formative years in Phoenix, Arizona, where she was raised from the age of nine. She is the third of four siblings. The daughter of Ronald Peniston , a military veteran and Barbara Anne, she started singing at church and doing plays and musicals such as H.M.S. Pinafore in the 6th grade. She participated in local karaoke contests and singing talent shows, while taking piano lessons. She attended Trevor G. Browne High School, class of 1987, in Phoenix, and landed a part in a local theater group's production of Bubblin' Brown Sugar (playing the young Sweet Georgia Brown). After earning her diploma, she continued to study liberal arts at Phoenix College, where she got involved in athletics, and entered beauty pageants. She was crowned Miss Black Arizona in 1989. Peniston began writing pop lyrics while at school. The words of her international hit "Finally" were purportedly penned during a chemistry