Lovelace Watkins (1938-1995) was a Las Vegas-based singer and performer who achieved fame in America as well as in Europe and Australia.
Watkins was born in 1938 to a 14-year-old mother then raised by his grandmother in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He studied microbiology at Rutgers University and also trained as a boxer. His operatically trained and signature booming voice reminiscent of a swinging Paul Robeson took him to Europe where he drove a Rolls Royce and became a superstar who gave a Command Performance for the Queen. The London Times called him "the best entertainer on earth." In South Africa, where he received 2 gold albums, he was given a public parade - an unprecedented reception for a black entertainer at the height of Apartheid. He appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in 1961 while promoting his album "The Big, Big Voice of Lovelace Watkins" [1], music arranged and conducted by Ray Ellis.
Lovelace recorded 9 albums both in the United States and in Europe. Full of hubris, Lovelace believed thought he would sing forever. But back in the States, bad business decisions and a Hollywood screen test that never transpired led to his cleaning offices and singing at various functions in Las Vegas before dying of leukemia in 1995.[1]