Melba Moore ’70

Vocalist and actress Melba Moore is a Tony Award winner and a four-time Grammy nominee.

Her prolific career has spanned the entertainment world. She has been on the Broadway stage in productions of Hair, Timbuktu, Inacent Black, Les Misérables and Purlie, for which she earned a Tony Award. Her movie credits include roles in Cotton Comes to Harlem, Pigeons, Hair, Lost in the Stars, All Dogs Go to Heaven and The Fighting Temptations. In addition, she starred or appeared in many television programs including The Melba Moore-Clifton Davis Show, Ellis Island, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Love Boat, Flamingo Road, Melba, Falcon Crest, The American Women and Portrayals of Courage.

As a vocalist, Moore has recorded albums and has enjoyed great success musically with such chart-topping songs as “Love’s Comin’ At Ya,” “Living for Your Love” and “Read My Lips,” for which she received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal. She also received a Grammy nomination for her album, Peach Melba.

Moore was the first female pop artist to perform a non-operatic solo concert at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. Her most recent single, “Love Is” was released in 2001. In 2015 she headlined “Forever Moore” at Feinstein’s 54/Below and returned again last January.

Moore was instrumental in having “Lift Every Voice and Sing” inducted into the U.S. Library of Congress as the official Black National Anthem. She has served as national membership chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women and has been active in the National Congress of Black Women through her involvement with C. Delores Tucker.

Moore is a 1970 graduate of Montclair State College with a BA in Music.

Bio as of May 2016