This Year’s Model

‘Here they are . . . En Vogue.”

It’s the night before the MTV Movie Awards and an announcer is introducing the three members of the nation’s most influential female vocal group of the ‘90s during a show rehearsal.

Dancing on a mammoth stage in the middle of a Santa Monica airplane hangar turned concert hall, Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones and Terry Ellis are running through an elaborately choreographed performance of “Whatever,” the single from “EV3,” the group’s first album since the 3.8-million-selling “Funky Divas” in 1992 (see review, Page 85).

While a band plays in the wings, six dancers line the back of the stage, each moving suggestively to the seductive, laid-back groove driving the song. Smoke fills the stage, adding even more ambience to the already busy scene.

Ellis, the reserved one with the explosive voice, practices a spin and then saunters around the front of the stage, looking at where the crowd will be cheering her on during the actual telecast.

Jones, who is lying nearby on the back of a revolving couch, resembles a purring cat. Herron, the group’s tall ball of energy, sits on the couch until her verse begins, then stands and starts walking toward center stage, an electric fan from downstage blowing her hair.

Soon, the three line up, moving in unison and switching lead vocals effortlessly. Their teamwork seems routine, much like a 40-point performance from Michael Jordan--you almost take for granted just how good they are.

“The more you rehearse, the more it becomes a part of you, and when you can almost do it in your sleep, only then have you practiced it enough,” Ellis says later, sitting in the group’s small dressing room.

But En Vogue--originally a quartet also featuring Dawn Robinson--has always made success look easy.

Not only did the “Funky Divas” album bring them sales and acclaim (including three Grammy nominations), but their glamorous, fashion-conscious image also made them pop icons against which the flood of subsequent female groups--from TLC to the Spice Girls--have been measured.

But real life caught up with them during a hiatus that began when the group ended its 1993 tour. While out of the spotlight, they renegotiated their recording contracts and took a break from the limelight.

Herron, who married former Cincinnati Reds outfielder Glen Braggs in 1992, has given birth to a son, Donovan, now 3. Jones had a daughter, Jessica, in 1996. Ellis released a critically acclaimed but only modestly selling solo album in 1995. Most significantly, Robinson left En Vogue in April, after most of the new album was recorded, to pursue a solo career with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Records.

All this has raised questions in the pop world about the commercial strength of En Vogue.

With so many other female groups emerging on the scene with similar fashion-minded images and sharply honed harmonies, there are some in the industry who wonder whether En Vogue has a large audience waiting for them. In addition, there’s Robinson’s absence--will En Vogue have as much star power as a trio as it did as a quartet?

“I’m not worried about a doggone thing,” Ellis, 30, says. “The record is going to come out and do what it’s going to do.

“It would be great if it sells a lot, but if it doesn’t . . . then we’ll cry,” she says, with winking sarcasm.

“You can’t be in it for the money or the fame. You have to love singing, and keep that purity.”

The women seemed more saddened by the recent departure of Robinson than concerned about it. While En Vogue prided itself on being a group with distinct, strong personalities, the three insist that it wasn’t a personality conflict that led to the separation.

“Dawn is our sister, and we miss her terribly, because we’ve been through a lot together” says Herron, 31. “But she felt a desire to go solo that we’ve all felt at one time--it’s just that after giving more than eight years to the group, she felt she had to do something else.”

Robinson, through her manager Trudy Green from HK Management, refused comment. Instead, Green issued a statement: “Dawn has started work on her new album with Dr. Dre. Because she’s concentrating fully on this project, she has chosen not to do interviews at this time. Her goal is to create an album that matters. She wishes En Vogue continued success.”

Herron and the rest of the group maintain they still have positive feelings about Robinson. “Each voice added something special, and her voice was a very important part of that,” Herron says. “So she’s doing her solo thing like Max and I will do someday, and it’s open for her to come back and she knows that. We’ll all sing together again someday--I still feel that.”

Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds is one person who prides himself on his knowledge of girl groups.

The Grammy-winning artist-producer-composer, in fact, has made a reputation by creating songs that fit the women he collaborates with like a second skin. Madonna’s “Take a Bow,” Toni Braxton’s “Let It Flow,” Mary J. Blige’s “Not Gon’ Cry” and TLC’s “Red Light Special” are just a few multi-platinum examples.

So when he calls En Vogue the most influential girl group of the ‘90s, you know that it’s more than just professional courtesy.

“En Vogue have a charisma about them that you can’t really explain,” Edmonds says while taking a quick break from recording at his studio in Hollywood.

“They’re gorgeous girls, but there’s a lot of gorgeous girls out there. There’s just something very commercial and very American about them, like Boyz II Men, only female. The thing that’s so cool about them, outside of their great singing, is their imaging. They can be wild, beautiful or crazy--but they’ll always stay on top of things.”

En Vogue has always had that kind of mesmerizing effect on fans, from the moment they hit the scene in 1990 with their monster single “Hold On.” It was the kind of song that immediately changed the direction of R&B;, with the group singing over a hip-hop groove that was much harder than those most R&B; groups were using at the time. Individually gifted, the four members formed a sort of Wu-Tang Clan before Wu-Tang: a talented collective that brought together an array of separate strengths that proved even bolder when combined as one unified force.

In a reassuring retesting of the waters last year, En Vogue demonstrated that they can still deliver the goods. Their “Don’t Let Go (Love)” single, from the “Set It Off” soundtrack, not only featured some of the group’s best singing but also returned them to the Top 10.

Discussing Robinson’s departure and the long hiatus, Maurice DeVoe, an associate programming director at KKBT-FM “The Beat” (92.3) in Los Angeles, expressed the optimism of many in the industry.

“I don’t think it makes that much of a difference to the fans,” says DeVoe. “That happens so much today, like Bobby Brown leaving New Edition, Blackstreet changing members and things like that. The fans get used to it. En Vogue has set a real standard. They’re avant-garde, and they’re going to take chances, not just sit there and look pretty. That’s what makes them a cut above the rest.”

Dressed in a denim shirt and loose, comfortable pants, Ellis, like the rest of the trio, appears casual and approachable, nothing like the glamour queen she is in front of cameras and flashing lights. As she and the others reminisce about the group’s modest beginnings in the late ‘80s, they begin to laugh. It’s obvious they enjoy being back together.

“I’m happy to be here rehearsing, because if I wasn’t, I’d probably be at home, going crazy around the house,” Herron says with a laugh.

Jones, 31, smiles and jokes about all the years of hard work.

“Denny and Tommy used to force us to rehearse,” she says, referring to En Vogue founding producers Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy, “and it didn’t matter how much we did it. They’d always be, like, ‘Do it again.’ It had to be right or not at all.”

En Vogue was formed after Foster and McElroy, former singers with the R&B; quartet Club Nouveau, auditioned women for a 1988 recording. They wanted a group that could be an Emotions or Supremes for the ‘90s--with soul, sophistication and sensuality.

“We wanted a group where all the members had voices that were equally strong,” remembers Foster. “Sexy, but not too glamorous to alienate female fans. The most important thing was that they have a strong ‘sista’ vibe, something that could get young girls to love a girls group all over again . . . like the past.”

Of the six women who showed up for that fateful audition, four stood out--Herron, the TV actress and former hotel clerk with a sweet soprano; Robinson, the Safeway checkout worker who had the kind of voice that could handle everything from soul to rock; Jones, the hairdresser turned club singer with a deep, richness to her bass, and Ellis, the down-home Texan with incredible range.

“Magic is the only way to describe it,” Foster says. “Their voices blended and they just had that ‘it’ factor. They looked like a group, talked like one, hung out like one, and when those harmonies hit, definitely sounded like one. It just worked.”

Eight years and one fewer member later, everyone connected with En Vogue feels the formula is still working. And the members have seen so many things happen during their reign that nothing seems to throw them these days.

“It’s pretty routine,” Jones says, when asked whether she’s nervous about the release of the new album. “We had a big meeting today about the launch of the record and I wasn’t all that excited, but I really tried to be. It’s cool, but sometimes it feels like another day at the job. I just want to get home with Jessica, and just watch the ducats roll in so I can add it to my bank account.”

Ellis and Herron appear surprised at the candid remark. Both share an “Ooh, you shouldn’t have said that” expression.

All three women laugh.

“Sometimes it’s hard to believe that we’re actually doing the things that we used to dream about as little girls,” Herron says. “Whenever I’m feeling down, or that I don’t want to do this, I’ll watch one of those documentaries about great musical groups from the past, and it will immediately rekindle my desire. I feel like, ‘Yeah! That’s what I’m in this business for.’ ”

Jones nods in agreement.

“It was just like what we used to see on ‘Soul Train,’ ” she says, recalling her own dreams of being a performer. “I still remember when Tina Turner performed on the show, and it seemed like every other girl in the neighborhood saw it. We all ran outside and took turns acting like the Ikettes.”