Melba Moore was born Melba Hill on 29 October 1945 in New York City

In her late teens, Melba hit Broadway appearing in such productions as Hair (eventually replacing lead Diane Keaton, the first black actress to do so) and her Tony Award winning performance in Purlie - again, the first black actress to do so.

While performing on stage, she continued to forge her singing career peaking with the hit This Is It, which reached the UK and Australian Top 10 in 1976, as well as the Bee Gee's penned You Stepped Into My Life and her Grammy nominated Lean on Me.

Success followed in the 1980's with the Top 5 Love's Comin' At Ya  and Livin' For Your Love, Love The One I'm With (A Lot Of Love), and the smash duet with Freddie Jackson, A Little Bit More in 1986. Falling continued the chart hits with  further Top Ten hits including It's Been So Long, and Do You Really Want My Love.

After difficult times in the early 90's, Melba made a triumphant return in the role of Fantine in the 1996 Broadway production of Les Misérables, again, the first black actress to portray that role.