She began singing for TV commercials at age 12, and entered various talent shows with the help of her mother. She performed in nightclubs, and began to write music around the same time. Cox entered the music industry in the early 1990s, performing as a backup vocalist for Celine Dion for six months.
In 1995, label executive Clive Davis signed Cox to Arista Records, and she released her self-titled debut album the same year.
After middling success, Cox released a non-album single for the soundtrack to the 1997 movie "Money Talks", titled "Things Just Ain't The Same". A dance mix of that song topped the U.S. dance charts and was included on her second album, "One Wish" in 1998. The first single from that album, "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here", spent 14 weeks at #1 on the Hot R&B charts in the USA, as well as eight consecutive weeks at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album went platinum, becoming Cox's biggest-selling album to date. Cox then recorded a new song, "Absolutely Not", for the soundtrack to Dr. Dolittle 2. Remixes of the song repeated the success of One Wish's singles on the dance charts, and the Chanel mix of "Absolutely Not" was included on her third album.
Cox's third album "The Morning After" was released in November 2002 on J Records.
On February 17, 2004, she made her Broadway debut in the Elton John-Tim Rice musical Aida, returning to recording only to release a dance remix of "Easy As Life" as a single.
Cox also has been involved in a number of movies and soundtracks. In 2000, she played Niko Rosen in Love Come Down. In 2001, her hit song "Absolutely Not" was featured in Dr. Dolittle 2. In 2005, in the movie Blood of a Champion she played the role of Sharon, and again in 2005, her voice was featured in the movie Hotel Rwanda in the song "Nobody Cares".
She released a dance single titled "House Is Not a Home" on Nervous Records in January 2006. Later in the year, the song "Definition of Love" was used in the movie Akeelah and the Bee, but was not released as a single.
Between 2005 and 2006 Deborah recorded her fourth album, called "Destination Moon". It is a tribute to jazz singer Dinah Washington and was released on June 19, 2007.
Cox contributed the song "This Gift" to the soundtrack of the 2008 movie "Meet the Browns" and was part of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour 2008.
She has also starred in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" along side Golden Brooks and Darius McCrary.
In early 2008, Cox and Stephens created the Deco Recording Group, her very own independent label, which is distributed through Image Entertainment.
Her fifth R&B studio album, "The Promise", was released on November 11, 2008. The first single "Did You Ever Love Me" was released to radio on August 26, 2008 and peaked at #69 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. The song "Beautiful U R" has been released digitally to iTunes and Amazon.com on September 16, 2008. It has recently reached #3 on the Canadian Radio Chart becoming her most successful single in nearly ten years. It also peaked at #3 on the Canadian Hot AC Chart (January, 2009 Chart) and hit #1 on the US Dance chart becoming her tenth song to do it.
The song was certified gold for digital downloads in January, 2009. "Saying Goodbye" was sent to Urban/AC radios in February, while "The Promise" is scheduled to be released as a single in July. Cox joined forces with Kenny Lattimore for the "Timeless Promise Tour" in July 2009.
In April 2009, she was featured on the single "Leave The World Behind". The house track was produced by four DJs — Axwell, Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso and Laidback Luke. It peaked at #40 on the US Dance chart.
In September 2009 it was announced she would be joining Kelly Price and Tamia to form the super group The Queen Project. In a February 2012 interview with Seattle Gay News, Cox confirmed that those plans were on hold, due to scheduling issues. "Each of us has moved on and we are all doing our own projects now." She also noted that she is currently working on a dance album. "My fans have been hounding me about another 'remixed' album."
In December 2011 Deborah achieved her 11th number 1 with "If It Wasn't For Love".
On September 7, 2012 Cox gave her inaugural performance as Lucy the female lead in a revival of the musical Jekyll & Hyde starring Constantine Maroulis: after premiering in La Mirada CA this production toured North American for twenty-five weeks playing at twenty locales, then began previews for its Broadway run April 5, 2013 officially opening its planned limited engagement Broadway run of thirteen weeks on April 18, 2013. Despite Cox herself receiving good reviews, the production did not enjoy strong Broadway box-office and subsequent to its non-showing in the 2013 Tony Awards list of nominees announced April 30, 2013 Jekyll & Hyde was announced to be playing its final show May 12, 2013. Cox had a new track "Higher" issued in the autumn of 2012, and in May 2013 stated she was planning to record a dance version of the Jekyll & Hyde number "Someone Like You". Also, in April 2013 Cox stated that a projected Broadway musical in which she'd play Josephine Baker, which had been workshopped in 2011, was still planned, the production being dependent on an available venue.
In 2014, she was one of the performers at the opening ceremonies of WorldPride in Toronto, alongside Melissa Etheridge, Tom Robinson and Steve Grand.
Cox provided vocals for the 2015 Whitney Houston biopic, Whitney, directed by Angela Basset. The same year, she released the deep house-influenced "Kinda Miss You", as well as the ballad "More Than I Knew" as singles. In 2016, Cox played the lead role of Josephine Baker in the Broadway-bound musical Josephine, which chronicled the singer's life between the years of 1939 and 1945, and starred as Rachel Marron in the North American Tour of the musical The Bodyguard based on the 1992 film of the same name. In support of the musical, Cox released the EP I Will Always Love You on Deco and Broadway Records, containing cover versions of seven Whitney Houston originals as well as Houston's cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You."[31] In June 2017, she released an uptempo dance single "Let the World Be Ours Tonight" during LGBTQ pride season on Radikal Records and Galactic Media. It marked her 13th single to top Billboard's Dance Club Songs.
In June 2019, she performed at Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019. In November 2019, Cox released the Rico Love-produced single "Easy Way" through Deco Entertainment. The song is expected to lead her seventh studio album, which is expected to be released in late 2020. In February 2020, Cox starred opposite Roger Guenveur Smith in the BET+ television thriller Influence, an adaption of Carl Weber's same-tited 2018 novel, portraying a big-name celebrity singer accused of killing her husband. Also in 2020, she appeared as a guest host in an episode of Canada's Drag Race and started webseries titled COXtales with Deborah Cox during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Deborah Cox was added to the BET series First Wives club during Season 2, playing the musician "Regina". In addition, she stars in a minor role as Wendy on the limited HBO TV series, Station 11.
Nobody's Supposed To Be Here
Deborah Cox Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Nobody's supposed to be here
I've tried that love thing for the last time
My heart says no, no
Nobody's supposed to be here
But you came along and changed my mind (my mind, my mind)
I've spent all my life
The love who'll stay for eternity
The heaven sent to fulfill my needs
But when I turned around
Again love has knocked me down
My heart got broken
Oh, it hurt so bad
I'm sad to say love wins again
So I place my heart under lock and key (ooh, yeah)
To take some time and take care of me
But I turn around and you're standing here
How did you get here? (get here)
Nobody's supposed to be here (nobody's supposed to be here)
I've tried that love thing for the last time (oh)
My heart says no, no (no)
Nobody's supposed to be here (nobody's supposed to be here)
But you came along and changed my mind (my mind, my mind)
This time I swear I'm through
But if only you knew
How many times I've said those words
Then fall again, when will I ever learn?
Knowing these tears I've cried
This lovely black butterfly
Must take a chance and spread my wings
Love can make you do some crazy things
So I place my heart under lock and key (ooh, yeah-yeah)
To take some time and take care of me (mm-hmm)
But I turn around and you're standing here
How did you?
Standing here
How did you get here? (Yeah, yeah)
No, nobody
No, no, no, no, no, no (shoo-do-doo, nobody's supposed to be here)
Nobody
No, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no
No
How did you get here?
Nobody's supposed to be here (yeah, oh yeah)
I've tried that love thing for the last time (I tried it, over and over)
My heart says no, no (no, no, no, no)
Nobody's supposed to be here (nobody's supposed to be here)
But you came along and you changed my mind (came along and you changed my mind, my mind)
How did you get here? (I'm not supposed to love)
Nobody's supposed to be here (I'm not supposed to care anymore)
I've tried that love thing for the last time
My heart says no, no (no, no, no, no, no)
Nobody's supposed to be here (no, no, no, no, no)
But you came along and changed my mind
The lyrics of "Nobody's Supposed To Be Here" by Deborah Cox speaks about a woman who has experienced many heartbreaks and has finally come to the conclusion that love is not for her. She has given up on the idea of love and has locked her heart away, convinced that she needs time to heal and to take care of herself.
The chorus reflects her disbelief at the fact that someone has come into her life again and made her feel something she thought she would never feel again. The line "nobody's supposed to be here" is repeated throughout the chorus, emphasizing how she has guarded her heart and is not ready for a relationship. The lyrics suggest that the person who has come into her life has changed her mind about love and has made her give it another chance.
The verse speaks about her search for love in the past, and how each time she thought she had found the one, she got her heart broken. She has tried to move on and forget, but she finds herself falling in love again and is scared that she will end up getting hurt again. The lyrics "Must take a chance and spread my wings, love can make you do some crazy things" suggest that she is willing to take a risk and open herself up to love again.
Overall, the song's theme is about the difficulty of letting someone in after experiencing heartbreak and how sometimes we can find love in the most unexpected places.
Line by Line Meaning
How did you get here?
The singer is surprised that the person she loves is in her life after she swore off love.
Nobody's supposed to be here
The singer didn't expect to fall in love again so soon after having her heart broken.
I've tried that love thing for the last time
The singer has sworn off love and doesn't want to get hurt again.
My heart says no, no
The singer's heart is telling her not to give into love again.
But you came along and changed my mind (my mind, my mind)
The person the singer loves has changed her mind about love and made her want to take another chance.
I've spent all my life
On a search to find
The love who'll stay for eternity
The heaven sent to fulfill my needs
The singer has been searching for true love her entire life, someone who will stay with her forever and make her happy.
But when I turned around
Again love has knocked me down
My heart got broken
Oh, it hurt so bad
The singer has been hurt by love in the past and is afraid to be hurt again.
I'm sad to say love wins again
So I place my heart under lock and key (ooh, yeah)
To take some time and take care of me
The singer is admitting that love has won again and is going to take time to focus on herself instead of love.
This time I swear I'm through
But if only you knew
How many times I've said those words
Then fall again, when will I ever learn?
The singer thinks she's done with love but knows she's said that before and still fell in love again.
Knowing these tears I've cried
This lovely black butterfly
Must take a chance and spread my wings
Love can make you do some crazy things
The singer knows she's cried a lot but is willing to take a chance on love again and see where it takes her.
No, nobody
No, no, no, no, no, no (shoo-do-doo, nobody's supposed to be here)
Nobody
No, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no
No
The singer is emphasizing that she wasn't expecting to fall in love again, but the person she loves is there anyway.
But you came along and you changed my mind (came along and you changed my mind, my mind)
The person the singer loves has made her change her mind about love and take another chance.
How did you get here? (I'm not supposed to love)
Nobody's supposed to be here (I'm not supposed to care anymore)
I've tried that love thing for the last time
My heart says no, no (no, no, no, no, no)
Nobody's supposed to be here (no, no, no, no, no)
But you came along and changed my mind
The singer is surprised that love has shown up in her life despite not expecting it, and the person she loves has changed her mind about love and made her want to take another chance.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Written by: Anthony Schapell Crawford, Montell Jordan
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind