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Táta Vega was born Carmen Rosa Vega in Jamaica, Queens, in October 1951, of Afro-Dominican, Puerto Rican and Spanish descent. Her Air Force father moved the family through Panama, Puerto Rico, San Antonio and Colorado Springs, and at 17 she legally took the name Táta, her first spoken word. She sang in the Los Angeles production of Hair from 1969 to 1970, joined Dobie Gray’s group Pollution, then Earth Choir, which Berry Gordy signed on the spot after seeing them at the Troubadour. When the group’s 1972 album failed, Motown dropped the band but kept Vega as a solo artist.

In 1975 a sniper on a roof shot her in the back of the head outside a gas station in West Adams; she walked to the hospital next door. From 1976 she released four solo albums on Tamla, and the 1979 12-inch Get It Up for Love became a UK disco club hit. She went on to sing backing vocals for Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Ray Charles and Elton John, provided Shug Avery’s singing voice in The Color Purple and was featured in the 2013 documentary 20 Feet from Stardom.

• Her Tamla albums were Full Speed Ahead, Totally Táta, Try My Love and Givin’ All My Love.
• She contributed lyrics to The Color Purple’s gospel number Maybe God Is Tryin’ to Tell You Somethin’ but went uncredited.
• She recorded the Spanish versions of Circle of Life for Latin American and Spanish releases of The Lion King.
• She earned a 1985 Grammy nomination for Andraé Crouch’s Oh It Is Jesus and met her husband at Crouch’s home.
• Her recordings have been sampled by Drake, Eminem and Daft Punk.