WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Tracie Spencer

Teen star Tracie Spencer made her debut aged 12 and achieved five hit singles. But was it her symptoms of a true love that brought her down?

Wannabe Pop star Tracie Spencer (b. Waterloo, Iowa in 1976) made her first steps to fame aged 3 entering talent competitions and eventually appearing in music videos aged 10. In 1988 she was signed to Capitol Records and released her debut single, “Hide And Seek”, which made a small dent on the R&B Chart. It was three months later that she gained popular support with “Symptoms Of True Love”, which went to No.38 in America and No.14 on the Dance chart there. Before the year was out, she has released her self-titled debut album, although this was only a minor success and only one more single was lifted form it, “Imagine”.

In between her studies, Tracie made live appearances across The States and after sittin gher exams, she returned in 1990 with a fuckier new sound with the single “Save Your Love”, a top ten hit on the R&B chart. It was her next single that she really made her mark as “This House” climbed to No.3 on the Pop charts and was a top ten hit on both the R&B chart and Dance chart. Tracie’s success was mostly confined to her come country, although “This House” and “Symptoms Of True Love” did chart low in a handful of countries elsewhere. Her best chart position in the UK was No.65, which she get as far as with two singles. Her 1990 album “Make The Difference” did a little better and would feature three more mid charting singles, “This Time Make It Funky”, “Love Me” and “Tender Kisses”, which would become her first and ultimately only number one on the R&B chart.

Tracie had begun recording her third album, to be titled “Naturelle”, in 1993, when Capitol dumped her with low record sales, particularly poor album sales. Tracie went into acting briefly in the mid-90’s before making another try with music in 1999 when she recorded and released “It’s All About You (Not About Me)”, which put her back in the US top twenty for the first time in nine years. Officially her third album, “Tracie”, was delievered at the end of 1999, but was not a hit and after the early 2000 release of “Still In My Heart”, Tracie abandoned music, seemingly for good. She has since recorded music for various film and television soundtracks and popped up in a 2004 film ‘A Tale Of Two Sisters’.

Tracie makes infrequent appearances at award ceremonies and other glamour nights, but seems to enjoy family times and the quiet life these days. Her last known musical surfacing was in 2014 when she performed “Tender Kisses” on the US TV show R&B Divas in Atlanta, but any reconciliation or comeback seems to have been out of the question and 35 years on, Tracie is happy to leave her all too brief career in the past.