Dawn Robinson, a founding member of the ’90s R&B group En Vogue, said this week that she had been living in her car for roughly three years after several living arrangements fell through.
In a nearly 20-minute video that was posted to her official YouTube channel on Tuesday, Robinson said that she did not want anyone’s pity and that she was comfortable with the decision she had made. Although she said she would rather have her own apartment, she put somewhat of a positive spin on her circumstances.
“I’m glad that I made this choice because I needed to go through this fire,” Robinson said in the video, adding that she was in the middle of a spiritual journey involving a period of isolation from family and friends. “I’m in the trenches of this right now and I’m like, ‘I wouldn’t trade my experiences and what I’ve gone through for the world.’”
A representative for En Vogue, which is still active without Robinson, declined to comment beyond saying that the group had not been in contact with her in more than five years. Robinson could not immediately be reached for comment and did not say in her video where her vehicle is.
En Vogue was founded in the late 1980s with Robinson, Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron and Maxine Jones and climbed the charts in the 1990s with songs like “Hold On,” “Free Your Mind” and “Giving Him Something He Can Feel.” A New York Times review of one of their concerts in 1992 praised the members’ vocal skills and said, “There’s not a weak voice in the group.”
Robinson left the group in 1997 but made reunion appearances in 2005 and 2009, according to Billboard. Its current members — Ellis, Herron, Jones and Rhona Bennett — performed at the N.B.A. All-Star Game in February.
Robinson, who was also in the music group Lucy Pearl with the singer-songwriter Raphael Saadiq, said friends had warned her not to share the details of her living circumstances. “My aim is to inspire,” she said. “And to let people know that you’re capable of anything, no matter what the odds are against you.”
The singer recounted the many living arrangements that had fallen through over the years, including stays with her parents in Las Vegas and her then manager in Los Angeles. She also lived in a hotel for eight months.
In March 2022, she said, she decided to take a different approach and try living in her car after researching “van life,” a trend that surged during the coronavirus pandemic in which people permanently live in a vehicle.
“I loved what I was seeing,” Robinson said. “I just thought, ‘I could do that, I can do this.’”
Robinson said that over the years she had developed a careful routine that included caring for her car, covering her windows when necessary and not talking to certain people. She also has a membership at a gym where she showers. “I’m a funky diva, but I’m not funky,” she said.
Toward the end of the video, Robinson said her career would bounce back and addressed concerns that she might be sharing the information for publicity.
“There are many things that people have done for publicity stunts,” she said. “Saying that I’m living in my car and actually not living in my car would be a stupid publicity stunt. But this is not publicity. I have all the footage from Vegas to L.A. to prove that.”
