Dionne Yvette Farris (born December 4, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. Born and raised in New Jersey, she began singing in elementary school and competed in pageants as a teenager. In the early 1990s, she was featured on the hip hop group Arrested Development (1992) hit single "Tennessee". Farris rose to fame with the release of her debut album, Wild Seed – Wild Flower (1994) on Columbia Records. The album featured the Top 40 single, "I Know" (1995). That same year, the video earned Farris the Billboard Music Video Awards Best Pop/Rock New Artist Clip of the Year. She was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (1996). Early life Farris was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, the daughter of Larraine (Wall) and Richard Farris, both of whom had musical talents and aspirations, and named Dionne for their favorite singer Dionne Warwick. Farris was raised in Bordentown, New Jersey by her single mother, whose side of the family introduced her to the musical acts that shaped and influenced her. Farris was a huge fan of Diana Ross as a child – one of Farris’ fonder memories was attending a Ross concert in Manhattan at the age of eight, being lifted by her uncle onstage, and getting kissed by the superstar. Farris began taking dance lessons at the age of three at Irene Parker Dance Studio in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. She danced ballet, jazz, tap, and toe for 10 years, opting at 13 to sing instead. She sang in her high school's choir. After graduating from Bordentown Regional High in 1987, Farris attended Mercer County Community College, where she studied photography. Farris entered into the Miss Hemisphere Pageant regional competitions, directly after high school and won her first and only pageant as 1987's Miss Hemisphere's Adult Talent, singing Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love for You" in Miami, Florida. She joined a band known as 2.0 and later as Breaking Ground. They began performing on the Manhattan's club circuit, and looked to sign a record deal. Farris decided to move to Atlanta with her then boyfriend Donald "Rasa Don" Jones (one of the early members of Arrested Development), where her father lived. After a short time, Farris met with Atlanta producer Jermaine Dupri and began writing songs for Atlanta-based acts such as TLC and singing backgrounds for acts such as Xscape, and El