En Vogue an R&B/pop group formed in the early 90s under the direction of music producers Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy. Their original and most successful line-up was Cindy Herron, Dawn Robinson, Terry Ellis and Maxine Jones. Their debut album Born to Sing was released in April 1990 and spun several top hits many of which crossed over from the R&B charts to the pop charts, most notably "Don't Go" and "Hold On". "Hold On" particularly was hugely successful and won the group two prestigious awards Billboard Music Award for R&B Single of the Year and Soul Train Music Award for Best Single by a Duo/Group.

Their second album Funky Divas would prove their breakthrough spawning several massive hit singles in both the pop charts and the R&B charts. The singles would launch En Vogue onto the American consciousness and included a track about prejudice "Free Your Mind", a cover of the song "Something He Can Feel" from the 1976 cult film Sparkle and "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)" which remained in the top ten for 13 weeks. This massive success led to a collaboration with Salt-N-Pepa on the track "Whatta Man", for Salt-N-Pepa's hugely successful album Very Necessary. This song spent weeks in the chart thanks in no small part, to the video which went on to win MTV Video Music Awards for Best Choreography, Best R&B Video and Best Dance Video. En Vogue then released the short EP Runaway Love which included "Whatta Man" before taking a three year hiatus. During this hiatus Robinson left and after this, although the they would go on to release three more albums they would never see their former success.