Denise Pearson

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Denise Pearson (born Denise Lisa Maria Pearson, 13 June 1968, Romford, Essex) is an English singer-songwriter. Best known for being the lead vocalist with the British pop/R&B group Five Star since she and her four siblings formed the group in 1983 until the group disbanded in 2006. She is sometimes credited as Deniece Pearson.

Five Star tracks written by Pearson include "Stay Out of My Life" (1987) (Five Star's only self composed top ten hit single), "Hard Race" (1987), "There's a Brand New World" (1988) and "What About Me Baby" (1990); ballads such as "Live Giving Love" (1987), "Let Me Be Yours" (1988), "Feel Much Better" (1990), "Funktafied" (2001), "Don't Let Me Be the Lonely One" (2001) and "Tell Me What You Want" (2001); and the uptempo "I'm Still Waiting" (1990), "Tienes Mi Amour" (1990), "The Love You Bring To Me" (1991), "Going With the Moment" (1994) and "Show Me" (1994).

In 1986 Five Star received a Grammy Award nomination in the "Best Rhythm and Blues Instrumental Performance" category [1] for Pearson's composition, "First Avenue", which was the B-Side of Five Star's first hit single "All Fall Down".

Denise has admitted that her bedroom was adorned with posters of Morten Harket from Norwegian band A-Ha, with whom she had a massive crush on at the time.

After moving to California with her family in the early 1990s, Denise married a racing driver, becoming Mrs Denise Saneinia. Despite divorcing in the late 1990s, she has kept this name for songwriting credits, but still performs under the name Denise Pearson. In 1994 she gave birth to a son, followed by a daughter a year later. Denise moved back to the UK with her children in 2005.

Projects outside of Five Star are a 1997 recording of "This Pain", a duet with former Bros frontman Matt Goss. Pearson was featured singing backgrounds for Tamia in 2001 for the song "Stranger in My House", on the WB series For Your Love starring Holly Robinson Peete.

In 2005 the Pearson-penned track "Strike" was recorded by up-and-coming American teen star Nikki Flores. The same year, Pearson and singer-song writer Ryan Tedder of the group Onerepublic wrote a song together that Pearson sings entitled "Over You," which can be heard on her Myspace. They also worked together on a new version of Five Star's 1986 hit single 'System Addict'.

Denise is now a prolific songwriter, and is working with a wide ranging team of producers. A solo career is planned, with a wealth of material already recorded. In May 2008, she recorded a promotional video for one of her tracks. Alongside brother Stedman,and a team of trained backing singers and dancers, Denise is playing several dates as 'Five Star', to celebrate the group's 25th anniversary.