When “ClubLonely” reached the #1 mark,Cardwell distanced herselffrom the Lil Louis project. Shortly aftermeeting Lil Louis, Cardwell conceived the single “Dancingin My Sleep,” and within aweek of penning it, she wasin Chicago cutting demos andwell on her way to a careeras a dance-hall diva andR&B songstress. Cardwell creates material that sounds as though she’smusing quietly about life whilea dancing throng gyrates with joy nearby, and her lyrics aresoulful, romantic and thought-provoking. He proved to be an early influence for Cardwell’s sound, which melds a new dance beat with a thoughtful lyrical twist. These remain staplesin the history of dance music.Cardwell’s experience asa vocalist and songwriter turned out to be exactly what Lil Louis had been searching for in a singer. As a result, Cardwell decided to answer an ad inthe Village Voice that read,“Epic recording artist lookingfor a background singer for alive tour.” The recording artistturned out to be house musicinnovator Lil Louis of Lil Louisand The World, whose 1992hits “Club Lonely” and “SavedMy Life” from the album“Journey with the Lonely”featured Joi Cardwell onvocals. Since the market in the 1980s wasalready saturated with sweet-sounding, bubbly R&B groups, it was diffcult for The Promise to stand. Her close affliation with Kashif led to an album dealwith Arista Records in 1988for her pop R&B girl-group, The Promise. AFTER HER STUDIES, SHE WROTE AND PUBLISHED SONGS FOR MAJOR R&B ACTS SUCHAS KASHIF, LA POSSE AND MALIKA THOMAS.

AFTER GRADUATING FROM NEW YORK UNIVERSITY WITH DEGREES IN ENGLISH AND MUSIC, SHE STUDIED VOICE FOR A YEAR PRIMARILYIN ORDER TO MASTER CONTROL, AS SHE HAD ALREADY DEVELOPED AND RETAINED HER OWN PERSONAL STYLE. SHE WORKED AS A BACK-UPSESSION VOCALIST FORMELBA MOORE, JERMAINE JACKSON, LL COOL J AND THE POINTER SISTERS. CARDWELLAPPEARED ON STAGE AT CARNEGIE HALL AT THE AGE OF FIVE IN A DANCE RECITALAND WAS - USED TO BEINGON A STAGE BY THE TIME SHE WAS A TEENAGER. BORN IN NEW YORK CITY IN THE LATE-1960S AND RAISED IN VARIOUS AREAS OF QUEENS IN NYC, JOI CARDWELL’S EARLY INFLUENCES INCLUDE BILLIE HOLIDAY, BARBRA STREISAND AND MINNIE RIPERTON.

Joi from friday