Rome

Real name Jerome Woods, the American R&B singer is better known under the pseudonym Rome. Born in Brenton Harbor, Michigan, on March 5, 1970, he began his musical career in high school as a member of the cover band Fire & Ice, with occasional solo appearances. After dropping out of college in 1989, the singer moved to California and collaborated as a backing singer with the band Vesta, while continuing to promote his name through live performances. Noticed by producers Gerald Baillergeau and Victor Merritt, seduced by his demo sent to the RCA label, the artist was signed and began work on his first album. In February 1997, the first single "I Belong to You (Every Time I See Your Face)" reached #2 on the R&B charts and #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, before the release two months later of the gold-certified album Rome (#7 R&B and #30 pop), from which the second hit "Do You Like This" (#10 R&B and #31 pop) also emerged. Despite a second album in the pipeline for the label, this was eventually abandoned and Rome signed with independent label JTJ to produce the following album To Infinity (Thank You), which reached No. 48 in the R&B charts in 1999. The albums To the Highest (2001) and Do It (2003) followed on the same label, while the compilation The Best of Rome was released in 2006. Back in 2014, the artist recorded the EP My Time Again for the Twenty Two label. Over the course of his career, Rome has collaborated with other artists including SWV, Danesha Starr, Sylk-E. Fyne and Bobby Brown, and two of his tracks appeared on the soundtracks of the films Blade (1998) and Hed Up (2000).