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After a year of accolades, a new single with Dave Audé, and an upcoming spring album, Crystal Waters is using her platform to teach the history of house music.
“House is white people music,” seems to be a sentiment held by many younger Black people nowadays. To be fair, if you’re Gen Z, the artists who have been the face of house music in the 2010s have been white—think David Guetta, Calvin Harris, or Avicii. It’s easy for us to not be aware of its roots.
When DJ Pierre was interviewed by Record Mirror in 1988, after house music traveled overseas and became popular in the UK, he stated, “White people like house music?” Indeed, house was born in Chicago in the early ’80s, pioneered by Black DJs like Jesse Saunders and Ron Hardy, who had an affinity for disco and cutting-edge synthesizer technology. The genre became so popular that it traveled to other cities, notably New York. Nightclubs that played only house music became safe havens for Black, Brown, and queer communities across Chicago and NYC. These clubs were what piqued the interest of one of the genre’s founding mothers of the ’90s: Crystal Waters.
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Her UK platinum record “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)” and the 45-week chart-topper “100% Pure Love” are known and adored to this day. This past year has been prosperous for the singer. With her new single “Baby Come Home” released last December and an upcoming album, Crystal’s priority for her career is to teach the correct history of the genre while also reminding everyone that she is not pop or R&B—she is house.
Although it seems unimaginable now, singing wasn’t the first career path Crystal Waters chose. Coming from a very musical family—she had a jazz musician father, Junior Waters, and a famous actress and singer aunt, Ethel Waters—Crystal affirms, “I’ve always loved music. I used to go on tour with my father. Every summer, I would go on the road with him as he played different places in the Midwest. But my parents felt that I should have an education first, as most parents do. So I chose to go to college.” She studied computer science at Howard University and got her first job in the D.C. parole board’s computer room.
After realizing that her job wasn’t making any money, Crystal decided to go into music through the recommendation of a psychic. “She told me that I wasn’t using my voice. A friend of mine had a cousin who was looking for background singers. I remember being in the booth and thinking, ‘This is it. This is what I want to do,’” declares the singer.
Nightclubs were the sanctuaries of house—the places where people would convert to the genre—and that’s exactly how Waters was introduced to it. “I used to spend a lot of time in the clubs when I was at school. Most of my friends were DJs. I just always loved having people over and playing music.” However, her formal introduction to house came through the Baltimore production team the Basement Boys. Crystal shares, “I met them after I gave them my demo tape. When I got home, they called me and said they loved my songwriting. I was doing more of a jazzy thing. I wanted to be the next Sade. They asked me if I could do that style over the kind of music they were doing back then, which was dance music. The first couple of songs they sent me were ‘Gypsy Woman’ and ‘Make It Happy.’ That’s when I got introduced to dance music and started going to New York clubs and checking out the scene.”
At the time, house was still considered disco’s younger sibling and was completely disregarded as a legitimate genre. “This is a genre where I was told, ‘It’s not going to last,’ and ‘It’s not real music,’” expresses Crystal earnestly. Fast-forward to today: house is considered the most popular club genre in the UK in 2024, according to research by A2D2.
Not only has the genre increasingly risen in popularity, but one of its pioneers has gained a significant amount of praise and recognition for her work. Miami-Dade County proclaimed December 4, 2025, as Crystal Waters Day, and the singer received a Voice of House award at the FEMMY Awards. In response to these achievements, Waters shares, “It’s very satisfying to know that you’ve made a lot of people happy. You can’t ask for more than that in life.”
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Most of these accomplishments build on the momentum of I Am House Orchestra. Presented by the queen of New York nightlife, Susanne Bartsch, at Sony Hall, this orchestrated event gathered the icons of ’90s house, including Robin S, CeCe Peniston, Barbara Tucker, and more. “The orchestra sounded amazing, and people are still talking about it,” states Crystal. The goal of this event was to revive the old house scene, and it was very successful. “A lot of people go to clubs but don’t dance anymore; it’s not a community. I wanted to bring back that feeling of togetherness. I mean, the show finished at 10, and these people stayed until 1 a.m., still dancing and vibing.” It seems as if this won’t be the last Orchestra event from Waters and her peers. “We’re getting a lot of requests to do it again. We’ve already got plans for a couple more this year that we’re working on.” If you’re in NYC, Florida, Chicago, Italy, or Australia, I’d advise you to keep your calendars clear until the next announcement.
I Am House has been adopted as Crystal Waters’ new trademark. She explains, “Five years ago, people were considering my music pop music, without realizing my background and where I came from. I decided to brand myself. I started using the hashtag, trying to separate myself from pop music, and that’s why I chose I Am House. So I’m doing I Am House Orchestrated, I Am House Radio, I have the I Am House record label, and I hope to expand it.”
To understand house is to understand its origins, which matters deeply to the ’90s singer. “House music started in the Black, Brown, and queer communities in Chicago and New York. A lot of people think that it’s white music now, or it started in Europe; they don’t realize the background of it. That’s part of what I’m doing with I Am House. As long as people know my name and my music, I’m going to make sure the correct story is told.” She is also currently working on an upcoming biopic on the history of house music, directed by David Serero.
It’s very important for Crystal to give back to the communities that have supported her since the beginning, especially the queer community. “I’ve been supporting them for 35 years. People ask me why I do it. These are the people who have supported me from day one. I do a lot of Pride events. They would throw stuff at us; they had signs up saying you’re going to go to hell. So I kind of feel like I went through that with them, and I’ve seen how far it’s come.”
This past year was rich in success for Waters, and 2026 is only getting better. With her latest single “Baby Come Home” with Dave Audé—released last December and named Track of the Week by Mix93FM—as well as her upcoming album, which she describes as “classic house with a modern twist,” confirmed for release this spring, Crystal Waters cements her legend status in the industry.
Crystal Waters’ new single “Baby Come Home” is available now. Her new album drops this spring.
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