We look back at Erika Jayne’s ascent to fame now that she’s captivating live audiences with her Vegas performance Bet it All on Blonde once more. Before becoming well-known for her outspoken demeanor on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Erika Jayne, a native of Georgia, had an amazing musical career that included an astounding nine No. 1 singles on the US Billboard Dance Club chart.
Now, with a residency at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, Erika is dazzling live audiences once again, with fans cheering for her every choreographed move as she belts out songs like “Pretty Mess” and “How Many F-cks.”
So, let’s look back on Erika’s career leading up to the new season of RHOBH.
Erika Jayne’s Music Career, Recapped
Erika, who was raised by a single mother in Atlanta, Georgia, has always welcomed the limelight even though she hasn’t always been well-known. She has a knack for performing from a young age, and her clubby, uptempo tunes are still influenced by early musical icons like Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson. Jayne’s mother Renee, a piano teacher and classically trained pianist, also instilled in her a love of music.
“You know, one of my special childhood memories is waking up on the weekend and listening to my mother playing downstairs,” she told AceShowbiz in 2009.
At 18 years old, the confident high school grad moved to New York City to pursue her dreams of becoming a performer and found work as a go-go dancer in the early ‘90s, before landing small roles in the first season of Law & Order and some movies.
Of that time, she told PEOPLE in 2018, “It taught me to be self-reliant. It also taught me to be incredibly resilient, to bounce back and assess situations quickly. I trust my gut a lot.”
A cross-country move to Los Angeles in the mid-’90s surpassed expectations: She met her multi-millionaire second husband (now her ex), but as she put it, “I was living [someone else’s] life… I was in a wealthy coma.”
So, at the age of 35, she started a second act.
“Erika Jayne was born out of rebellion. I like to break the rules,” she told PEOPLE.
That rebellious spirit shines through in Erika’s first single, “Roller Coaster,” which topped the dance charts in 2007. Her debut album, Pretty Mess, quickly followed suit, produced and co-written by a dream team that’s worked with Madonna, Britney Spears, and Cher.
Charged with provocative lyrics, her pop music is simultaneously relaxed and upbeat: “Jayne doesn’t sing so much as purrs,” The Los Angeles Times wrote of her style.
Erika has since hit her stride, collaborating with artists including Flo Rida and Sheila E., and has released several more singles, two of which became number-one hits: “Painkillr” and “How Many F*cks.”
She discussed how creating a performing character that “is founded on the principals of fantasy, love, escape, glitz, glamour, and fun” helped her gain empowerment in a 2018 Ted Talk. She is glamorous and fun, but more than anything, her alter ego gave me the ability to be brave, which is something I would not have had otherwise. And she is courageous. She embarked on her first live tour at the end of 2018, stopping in cities from Miami to Los Angeles as she traveled the nation. Erika was cast in the well-known lead role of Roxie Hart in a Broadway production of Chicago the next year, but the production was canceled because of COVID-19.