Early life and career Payne was born in
Detroit,
Michigan, Shortly thereafter, Eddie Holland offered her a song titled "
Band of Gold", which he wrote along with Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Ronald Dunbar. The first one features the disco hit "Love Magnet" produced by Frank Wilson (1977). In 1981, she briefly hosted her own talk show ''Today's Black Woman
, In the mid-1990s, she released three albums for Dove Music: The (Unauthorized) I Hate Barney Songbook: A Parody
(1994), An Evening with Freda Payne: Live in Concert
which featured her sister Scherrie Payne on background vocals, and her first (and only) Christmas album Christmas with Freda and Friends
, which featured a duet between Freda and Scherrie (both 1996). Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), and Fire & Ice'' (made-for-TV, 2001). During the early 2000s, the following
compilation albums of her music were released:
Lost in Love (which includes nine of her post-Invictus recordings),
Band of Gold: The Best of Freda Payne (both 2000),
Unhooked Generation: The Complete Invictus Recordings (2001), and
The Best of Freda Payne: Ten Best Series (2002). In February 2010, Payne joined
Kanye West,
Jordin Sparks,
Jennifer Hudson,
Barbra Streisand and many more on
We Are the World for Haiti Relief. In 2011, Payne recorded a duet, "Saving A Life", with British pop star Sir
Cliff Richard for inclusion on his
Soulicious album. She joined Richard on his "
Soulicious" tour of the UK in October of the same year. She sang the new duet with Richard along with her own hit "Band of Gold". In January 2018, she performed "A Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald", in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center, in
Hackettstown, New Jersey. ==Personal life and honors==