WHO IS SHE?: This hugely talented, eye-poppingly sexy 28-year-old Canadian is R&B's hottest rising star.

WHAT HAS SHE DONE?:
Her sultry single Nobody's Supposed To Be Here -- off 1998's platinum One Wish -- spent 14 weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B charts. And then there's the off-the-charts sex appeal of the video Up & Down (In & Out), the first single off her just-released third album The Morning After.

WHY DO WE CARE?: Her amazing voice hits all the right notes in her bedroom ballads, and she's refreshingly down-to-earth. It's plain and simple: There's nothing sexier than Cox! Er, that came out wrong.

Playboy.com: Did immature losers ever make jokes about your name?

Deborah Cox: Oh, yes! It was horrible. And people to this day ask me if I changed my name for professional reasons, and I say, "Why would I?" If I had a normal name like Smith, why would I change it to Cox? That would not be my first choice of names. Growing up, they were horrible, the things that they would come up with. So now, if anybody tries to say anything about my name, I say, make it original because I've heard everything in the book!

Buy Now!
The Morning After
Listen to Up & Down (In & Out)

PB: You started out singing for commercials. Do you remember any of the products you sang for?

DC: My first commercial jingle was for Marvelous Muffins. I did another one for Mazda. I did one for Stouffer's. Do they have Stouffer's out here?

PB: Oh, yeah, we live on that. You were a backup singer for Celine Dion. What did that teach you about how to be a diva?

DC: She really treated her whole camp, her band, her backup singers very well. I remember saying to myself, if I ever get into the position, I would love to have my organization run like this. You'd get your per diem checks on time, you'd get payment on time. You were treated with respect.

PB: What are your most diva-like habits?

DC: I don't find myself in situations where people are bowing down to me. That doesn't happen. I don't really get caught up in the whole diva-dom.

PB: Be honest: Did you ever ask anybody to bow down, even once? A friend or something?

DC: No. No. The only thing that I am really adamant about is my sound when I'm onstage. That's the only time the diva will really come out. If the microphone is trippin', or if the sound is not right, I'll tell the monitor person a couple words. [Laughs]
PB: When your second album came out, you had two number-one hits, and you broke records for longest time on the charts at number one, but you didn't get a Grammy nomination. Did that piss you off?

DC: Oh, yeah. That wound still hasn't healed. [Laughs] It really forced me to become a NARAS member so I could vote. If you don't have people in there voting for you, it's not going to happen. The hardest part is answering that question...over and over and over again.

PB: We promise, we will never ask it again! On your biggest hit from the last album, Nobody's Supposed To Be Here, you sing, "Love can make you do some crazy things." What's the craziest thing love ever made you do?

DC: It was Valentine's Day, and I decided I was gonna chop all of my hair off and do this really hot, short Halle Berry look. I went to the worst hairdresser in the world, and my hair came out horrible. I ended up going to the drugstore, getting some gel and just slicking my hair back. I was meeting my boyfriend to go to the Miles Davis concert, so that put the pressure on even more. He was like, "What did you do?" I was like, "Let's just go and check out this concert."

PB: You have a song on this album, Just A Dance, about women who go out just to dance and don't want guys hitting on them. What's the wildest thing a guy ever did to hit on you?

Buy Now!
One Wish

DC: Oh, some guy came up to me at a club and said, "You look so good I could drink your bathwater." I just looked at him like, "What drugs are you on?" I just left him standing there. I didn't even have a response.

PB: The single on this new album is called Up & Down (In & Out). Sounds kinky! Now what's that about?

DC: Well, it's about two people who are madly in love but just not in sync. She's basically in the mood, ready to do her thing. He's not, he's acting the fool. It's the reverse of the "not tonight" syndrome, because the woman is in the mood. She just says, "Look, you're right. Now stop acting the fool and get it on!"

PB: What was the last conversation you had with a girlfriend about sex or dating?

DC: I was like, You got to let the guy sweat a bit. You've got to let him chase you. If you don't give him any chase, he's not going to be as intrigued and wanting to get into a relationship with you. A lot of women tend to give it up too soon. You can't just think that by sleeping with a guy you're gonna keep him around. If anything, you just become a conquest, you end up being another girl that he slept with and probably won't see again. If the women hold out, you'll see his true colors. If he stays around despite the fact that you're not intimate, then you probably got a good catch.

Photo Credit: courtesy J Records