Soul Survivor

SPOTLIGHT

when Jody Warley left the group Shalamar in 1983, a (former) adviser told her she'd never make it as a solo artist. "They all told me that," she says, smiling her radiant Diana-esque smile. "But I'm a driven woman. I didn't care." After two top-ten records and the imminent, destined-to-go-platinum Affairs ofthe Heart, Watley is having her revenge on the naysayers. They may have lumped her together with Janet Jackson as another dancecrazed, neo-disco diva, but Watley outdistanced any comparisons; she's looser than Jackson and funkier than, say, Paula Abdul. And Watley's niche in the pop firmament is enhanced by a tremendous sense of style. A former Soul Train dancer, she once thought of becoming a fashion designer, and her knack for reinvention—she has gone from gamine to outrageous neoromantic punkette to siren and back again— has always complemented her music. "I style myself," she says. "I got that from my parents—my dad would change clothes four times a day. It drives the record company crazy. They say, 'Don't change so fast. Peopie have to get used to your new look.'" Watley smiles again. "But I know my goals better than anyone—I want to be megafamous and I want to do my own grocery shopping."

LYNN HIRSCHBERG