09/07/2026
What’s your favorite song off Karyn White’s debut album? 👇🏾
38 years ago today, a session singer out of Los Angeles named Karyn White released her self-titled debut and did something no woman in R&B had done before her. Her first three singles all went No.1: “The Way You Love Me,” “Superwoman,” and “Love Saw It.” That same album helped turn two young writers named Babyface and L.A. Reid into the most important production duo R&B would ever have.
Here’s the part that stays with you. Karyn was 23 when she recorded “Superwoman,” too young to have lived a word of it. So she borrowed someone else’s life. “When I sang the song, it was about my mother,” she told AARP. “How could I know what a superwoman was at 23?” She was singing her mother’s exhaustion before she understood her own.
She always said L.A. and Face could have handed that song to anybody. Anita Baker, Janet, Jody Watley and Vanessa Williams were all right there in that era. They gave it to her. “I’m glad they saw the strength in me that I could pull it off.” She earned every second of it.
Give Karyn her flowers 🌹
✍🏾 Tomi
karyn white, superwoman, babyface, la reid, 80s r&b, radar replies
