EN VOGUE shot to fame in the late eighties and early nineties, with them recently making headlines again.
The R&B group shot to stardom in 1989 when their single Hold On reach No.2 in the US Hot 100, but recently made headlines after one of their former members revealed that they have been homeless for the past three years.
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En Vogue are now about to reform and head out on tour, without its original line up, with them even due to perform at Glastonbury in the UK this summer.
Dawn Robinson, 58, was one of the founding members of the group – and she won’t be present on tour with the women when they head out on the road again.
She stayed with the band until 1997 when En Vogue disbanded, and now, 28 years on she is homeless and living in a car despite the band gushing about reforming soon.
En Vogue has had a rocky past since they disbanded in 1997, with things not going smoothly at all.
BITTER LEGAL BATTLE
In 2012, group members Cindy Herron and Terry Ellis sued former members Maxine Jones and Dawn Robinson for the En Vogue name.
Cindy and Terry also sued Maxine and Dawn for $1 million in damages after the group split, claiming that the two women continued to tour under the name En Vogue.
They won a judgement allowing only Cindy and Terry to use the band name, but failed to receive the damages they wanted to obtain.
After decades of legal woes, both sides agreed to settle out of court.
And now, as the band prepare to reform and go on tour with a new member and an old founding member, Dawn has revealed how she has been homeless and sleeping in her car for three years.
HEARTBREAKING CONFESSION
Taking to YouTube on Tuesday, Dawn shared a heartbreaking video where she spoke about her situation.
“For the past three years, almost three years, I have been living in my car,” she revealed three minutes into her new video.
“I said it, oh my God, it’s out,” she said.
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Dawn went on: “If you guys were with me, what in 2020, I did like 105K interviews and in the interim I was living with my parents in [Las] Vegas and that was wonderful until it wasn’t.
“I love my mom but she became very angry and [she was taking] a lot of her anger out on me,” she said.
“I was her target all the time and I was like, ‘I can’t deal with this.’ Like, I respect her too much. I didn’t understand it I still don’t, It hurt me.”
She explained how she needed to get out of the situation, so started sleeping in her car for about a month while in Vegas.
Dawn then recalled how the guy who was co-managing her at the time told her to move back to LA, so she did.
DAWN’S ‘CAR LIFE’
She moved in with her manager for a short while, before she was put up in a hotel for eight months.
But because living in a hotel wasn’t feasible, Dawn looked into “van life, car life, RV life” and wanted to live life off the grid.
“I ended up in my car, and it’s been like I said, three years,” she said.
Speaking about “car life”, Dawn said: “I felt free. I felt like I was on a camping trip. It just felt like it was the right thing to do.
“But then as I got to know what to do in my car and how to do it, like, how to cover my windows and you don’t talk to certain people.”
She added: “You’re careful of telling people that you’re alone, as a woman especially, and I’m a celebrity [so] I don’t just divulge that to people.”
And later said: “I felt like I was on a camping trip. I just felt like it was the right thing to do. I didn’t regret it. You know, a lot of celebrities have lived in their cars.”
Dawn later spoke about “succeeding again” and having a “resurgence” of her career.
She spoke about wanting to release a documentary with Netflix about sleeping in her car and rebuilding her life.
“Am I glad that I did this? Absolutely,” she said.
EN VOGUE’S REFORMATION
En Vogue are now preparing for Glastonbury Festival in the UK, as well as several other shows.
Just last month, despite their legal battle, En Vogue welcomed Maxine back into the group.
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Sharing a video of them singing on social media, they announced: “Welcome back, @iammaxinejones!“
“Wait!!! OMG! This made my heart so happy,” said one person.
Another then gushed: “It’s so good seeing y’all together again.”
While a third added: “Where’s Dawn??? I love seeing y’all all together!”
And a fourth echoed: “I’d personally love to see all 5.”
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