Niesha Dominguez

Niesha Dominguez (2016)

Lance McKinney

(m.2004; div.2013)

**Niesha Dominguez** (born June 22, 1970) is an American singer and record producer.

## Biography

### Early Life

Niesha Dominguez was born on June 22, 1970 in Denver, Colorado. She is the youngest of four children born to Argelio Dominguez, a former firefighter of African-Cuban and Jamaican heritage and Albertina (née Gonsalves), a vocal coach hailing from Saint Vincent and Grenadines of Portuguese-Creole and African-Brazilian descent. Niesha's mother in her teenage years was singing in her school's band. Her oldest sibling is nineteen years older than her and at the day of his birth their parents were 22 and 23. During her elementary school years Niesha excelled her singing voice and her voice teacher was her own mother. She was taking part in many singing competitions and has won many of them. She was attending to Denver East High School and graduated from it in 1988. From 1988 to 1992 Dominguez studied Visual and Performing Arts at University of Colorado Boulder.

### Career

In 1992 she was the chorister of the band ''Golden'' during their European tour named ''EuroGolden''. Jenna Donaldson, singer of the band once asked Niesha to replace her during concert in France because Jenna had sore throat. Niesha sang Golden's three songs ''I Love You In May'', ''Joe and Julie'' and ''Dreams of Ancient People''. When she finished, the crowd gave her a big round of applause. After that performance Niesha joined Golden and sang songs with Jenna. After their comeback to United States, Niesha moved to San Diego to be closer to band. In 1993 band has released an album ''Bean'' which gave Niesha much popularity. Dominguez decided to leave band in 1994 to start a solist career. In Summer 1995 Niesha released her first album ''Take Me'' which was announced best album of the year and in same year Niesha won Grammy because of it. She became first ever person of African and Hispanic descent to won it. In December 1996 she has released song ''Bells & Hats'' which quickly became Christmas hit. In 1997 she was announced one of the juries in upcoming music programme ''Sing For Your Dreams''. Dominguez stayed in programme as a jury until 2005, when she founded her own record studio ''Dominguez''. Since 2006 to 2010 she was a jury in ''America's Got Talent'', later from 2011 until 2016 she was a jury in ''X Factor''. In 2017 she wrote and sang song ''Wings'' for a movie ''Happiness'', song was nomminated for an Oscar, but did not won it.

### Personal Life

Dominguez met her first husband Horacio Saavedra, an Argentine in 1990. They wed on January 17, 1992 in Havana, Cuba. At the ending of 1995 Dominguez has announced that she and Saavedra are in separation. Saavedra filed for divorce in February 1996 and they divorced in May same year. In 1998 she started dating British Lance McKinney. They announced their engagment in June 2001. They wed on April 8, 2004 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and spent their honeymoon travelling Caribbeans. In late October 2004 Niesha announced that they are expecting their first child. On July 3, 2005 she gave birth to a daughter Josette Lesley. Their second child, a son Jamar Anthony was born on December 16, 2009. Dominguez and McKinney divorced in 2013. Since 2015 she is in relationship with Nicaraguan-born baseball player Marcos Granera. They got engaged in September 2019 during their vacations in Barbados.