Songfacts®:

• Jody Watley's debut single as a solo artist was "Looking For A New Love," which came from personal experience: she wrote the lyric inspired by a breakup. On her next album, the first single was "Real Love," a song about looking for a deeper connection with a lover.
  
  Watley wrote the song with Andre Cymone, an early Prince collaborator who brought a Minneapolis funk sound to the table. Cymone turned out to be Watley's real love, at least for a while. They were married from 1991-1994 and had a son named Arie.
• Watley wrote the song after her record company, MCA, told her she needed one more song for the album. She listened to various tracks Andre Cymone put together for her and picked the one that connected with her. The title came to her right away. "It comes across because I guess that's the essence of who I am," she said in the Billboard Book Of #1 R&B Hits. "Having strength as a woman and conveying that in the songs, it just comes out."
• Watley got her start dancing on Soul Train, and was so good that when it came time to assemble the group Shalamar, she got the call. She sang on their hits "The Second Time Around" and "Dead Giveaway" before launching a solo career that got off to a great start - her self-titled debut album sold over a million copies and earned her a Grammy for Best New Artist. Her next album was Larger Than Life, and it produced two other Top 10 hits: "Friends" and "Everything." Her next album didn't do nearly as well, and in 1995 he left MCA and formed her own label. In the 2000s, she had a lot of success making dance music, becoming a regular on Billboard's Dance charts.
• Like "Looking For A New Love," "Real Love" went to #1 on the Dance and R&B charts, and to #2 on the Hot 100, held off by Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl."
• The music video for the song is almost a bigger story than the song itself. It was directed by acclaimed Hollywood director David Fincher, who would later go on to direct the films Seven, Fight Club, Panic Room, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The video's stylish techniques got it nominated for six MTV Video Music Awards.
  
  One might look at the video now and say "It's so derivative, what's so special about it?" Actually, it's the other way around! The runway walk, the tight black-and-white shots of Watley's face, the moving text - all of those techniques were done her before they showed up in so many '90s videos. David Fincher was able to pull it off because of Watley's exquisite fashion sense. She did some modeling work after leaving Shalamar and starting her solo career.
• You could sweat it out to this song in Dance To Fitness, a video Watley released in 1990 where she does dance routines that double as exercise. Six of Watley's songs provide the soundtrack.