Singer

As JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound took the stage for WTMD's First Thursday concert in Mount Vernon this past June, the rain came. But instead of allowing the dark clouds to damper the mood, lead singer Jayson Brooks saw an opportunity to make an impression. The magnetic frontman worked every inch of the stage, encouraging the crowd to clap along as he cleanly hit falsetto notes. When the rain stopped and a rainbow emerged, it almost felt as if Brooks had willed the clouds away.

At first glance, David Correy and Nelson Emokpae could not be more different. One is a humble, clean-cut 32-year-old African native with a silky voice. The other is 26, covered in tattoos and piercings and so passionate about his music he breaks down in tears while talking about it. Yet Correy and Emokpae came up in and around Baltimore, and both have tragic pasts that pushed them to seek solace in music. Now they're both competing on rival reality singing competitions - Correy on "The X Factor" and Emokpae on "The Voice.

Irene C. "Connie" Rosenker, a homemaker who had been a singer during the 1930s, died Sept. 17 at Sinai Hospital from complications resulting from a fall in her Northwest Baltimore home. She was 91. The daughter of a haberdasher and a Boy Scouts administrator, the former Irene Constance "Connie" Moskowitz was born in Baltimore and raised in the 800 block of N. Broadway. She attended city public schools and during the 1930s performed locally as a singer and a dancer under the stage name of Connie Moss, "The Princess of Swing.

Much has been made about President Barack Obama's budding friendship with Jay-Z, but there's another, perhaps more surprising artist you'll find on his iPod: Regina Spektor, the imaginative 32-year-old singer/songwriter whose latest album, "What We Saw from the Cheap Seats," debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 in June. After Spektor played at the White House in 2010 for a celebration of Jewish-American heritage, the president hand-picked the Moscow-born singer to perform at a fundraising gala.

Adam Lambert waited until after he was crowned runner-up of American Idol's eighth season to reveal that he was gay (which came as a surprise to almost no one). Since then, he's become the first openly gay man to top the Billboard 200 album chart with his second album, "Trespassing. " Now, he's lending his support to the push toward marriage equality in Maryland. On Tuesday, Lambert headlines a fundraising concert for Marylanders for Marriage Equality at the 9:30 Club in D.C. Lambert was eager to discuss his feelings on the bill, his identity as a gay artist and whether or not marriage is in the cards for him. Do you have plans to get married?

Rebecca D. Dorsey, a Baltimore-born and -raised chanteuse, died Sept. 14 of ovarian cancer at her home in Sea Cliff, N.Y. She was 54. The daughter of a physician and a public relations executive, Rebecca Devereux Dorsey was born in Baltimore and raised in Glencoe and Homeland. After graduating in 1976 from Garrison Forest School, she earned a bachelor's degree in dance from Sarah Lawrence College in 1980. "She began studying singing at the Sorbonne, where she had gone to study French, and realized she had a voice," said her mother, Glorian Devereux Dorsey of Cockeysville, former director of public relations at The Baltimore Sun. "Then she came back and started studying acting in New York when she was in her 20s. " Ms. Dorsey modeled and had supporting roles in such films as "Wall Street," "Slaves of New York," "Working Girl" and several Woody Allen pictures, her mother said.

A few years ago, Tyson Ritter, the lean lead singer of the All-American Rejects, was a walking rock 'n' roll cliche. After experiencing "life-changing" success thanks to "Gives You Hell" — his band's 2008 single that sold more than 4 million copies and catapulted the quartet into the Top 40 stratosphere — Ritter moved to Los Angeles and quickly fell into a life focused on beautiful women and all-night partying. The Oklahoma native, now 28, says his quarter-life crisis had its "dark" moments, but he was able to come out the other side because of the Rejects' long-standing writing ritual: They find seclusion.

Ramona Singer knows a thing or two about being camera-ready. As one of the original cast members of "The Real Housewives of New York," Singer is used to being in the public eye. That means being Paparazzi-prepared. Singer isn't trying to chance being included on anyone's worst dressed list. So she makes sure she keeps on top of trends at events. That means going to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. We caught up with the television personality at the Walter Baker show at Lincoln Center.

In the days after her sister, Rose, died in a train derailment, Anna Mayr felt as if her younger sibling were upstairs sleeping while friends swapped stories on the family's Ellicott City porch until the early hours of Sunday. Anna Mayr, a May graduate of the University of Maryland, had just moved to New York City to start a career in finance when her father called Tuesday to tell her the unimaginable news: Rose was killed when a CSX train ran off the tracks and buried her and one of her best friends, Elizabeth Conway Nass, in coal.

R&B singer and Baltimore native Mario will appear at Mondawmin Mall Wednesday at a teen summit. The event is open to young people citywide and attendees will have a chance to ask the star questions. Other "celebrities" appearing on the panel include: Ray Lucas, president of 100 Black Men Baltimore chapter Sonja, a former 92 Q disc jockey Keion Carpenter - a former NFL Atlanta Falcon who's from Baltimore              Tori Nelson - middleweight women's boxing champion  The release also lists mall General Manager Romaine Smallwood-Smoot as one of the attractions.