Dawn Robinson of En Vogue Reveals She’s Been Living in Her Car for Years

Dawn Robinson, formerly of En Vogue and Lucy Pearl, is living in her car. The R&B diva shared the announcement on YouTube in the sixth episode of her vlog series, Shhyne.

“For the past three, almost three years, I have been living in my car,” Robinson said in the 18-minute video uploaded on Wednesday (March 12). 

She explained that she was living with her parents in Las Vegas back in 2020. However, she decided to leave after issues with her mother.

“I was living with my parents in Vegas, and that was wonderful until it wasn’t. I love my mom, but she became very angry, and a lot of her anger she was taking out on me, and I was her target all the time,” Robinson shared.

She continued, “I was like, ‘I can’t deal with this.’ I respect her too much. I didn’t understand it. I still don’t, and it hurt me. So I was just trying to figure it out, but I couldn’t… So I was like, ‘Let me get out of here. And I was sleeping in my car for maybe about a month in Vegas.”

Why Dawn Robinson is Living in Her Car

While still in Las Vegas, Robinson was talking with her former co-manager about relocating back to Los Angeles. She mentioned he offered to allow her to stay with him but that ultimately fell through.

“He said that I could stay with him. And so I was like, ‘OK, but you have a dog. I have a dog.” He’s like, ‘I don’t have a lot of room, but I’ll make room for you.’ When I got to his place, he actually didn’t have room for me. So it turned into, ‘OK, well I’m going to put you in a hotel for the night.’ And that one night turned into eight months.”

While living in the hotel, Robinson expressed interest in finding an apartment since the cost would be “way cheaper than a hotel.” However, that didn’t pan out.

“Every single time I looked at a place I would call him and I’m like, ‘OK, can you meet me here?’ I would tell him ahead of time, of course, and then he wouldn’t meet me there. I would take video and send it to him, and he’s like, ‘No. Oh my god, this neighborhood. I hate it.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m the one who has to live here,” she recalled.

Robinson added, “I knew he was playing games, and I wasn’t the one. I’m like, ‘Come on, I’m trying to make this easier on you because financially I know it’s got to be hard. You’re paying your rent, and you’re paying my hotel.’ His apartment was $1700 a month, and then my hotel was over $3000 — way too much.”

Robinson also alluded to her feeling like he was trying to exercise control over her: “Sometimes, people want to trap you and keep you in a situation where you’re vulnerable and depending on them, and I wasn’t the one, so yeah, I got out of there.”

It then led Robinson to the idea of exploring “car life.” “There’s a whole community of people that live in their cars and a whole community of people that live in their RVs and a whole community of people that live in vans,” she said. “I loved what I was seeing. I just thought, ‘I can do this — I think,’ and I ended up in my car, and it’s been, like I said, three years.”

Dawn Robinson on Her Experience Living the “Car Life”

Robinson mentioned that March 9, 2022, is when she left her hotel to begin her car-living journey. While she admitted that it was scary at first, it was also liberating.

“I felt free. There was a sense of freedom that I had,” she described. “I felt like, ‘Wow, this is so different.’ I felt like I was on a camping trip. I just felt like it was the right thing to do. I didn’t regret it.”

Robinson has been documenting her experience over the years, which she says has been “an adventure.”

She added, “It’s a journey, and I’ve been documenting it and filming myself doing certain things. I can only film so much from my point of view. I have a lot of footage of me just like making this whole thing work, and I’m glad that I made this choice because I needed to go through this fire… I’m definitely in the trenches of this right now, and I wouldn’t trade my experiences and what I’ve gone through for the world.”

The footage is intended to appear in a documentary that she’s also been working on. “People need to see how I’ve done this. It is no joke, you guys, and I hope from this you can gather that, wow, if Dawn could do that, I can do anything.”

About Dawn Robinson

Dawn Robinson is a founding member of the iconic R&B group En Vogue, along with Cindy Herron, Terry Ellis, and Maxine Jones. They released their debut album, Born to Sing, in April 1990, which included their hit “Hold On.” The latter tune peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1992, En Vogue returned with their second album, Funky Divas, which featured classics like “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It),” “Free Your Mind” and “Giving Him Something He Can Feel.”

Robinson left the group shortly before they released their third album, EV3, in June 1997. The album included the signature hit “Don’t Let Go (Love),” which also appeared on the Set It Off soundtrack.

She went on to form the supergroup Lucy Pearl with Raphael Saadiq and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. They released the sole self-titled album in May 2000, which featured the Grammy-nominated hit “Dance Tonight.”

Robinson left Lucy Pearl that October and returned with her solo debut album, Dawn, in 2002. Unlike her previous works, the album did not produce any hits.

Since then, Robinson briefly returned to En Vogue in 2005 and 2009, where they embarked on the En Vogue: 20th Anniversary Tour.

In 2013, Robinson joined the cast of the reality series R&B Divas: Los Angeles with Chanté Moore, Lil Mo, Michel’le, Claudette Ortiz and Kelly Price. Robinson starred in the show for one season.

In other En Vogue news, in February, it was announced that Jones had returned to the group, which also consists of Rhona Bennett, who joined in 2003.

For fans who have been urging for Robinson’s return, she has constantly dismissed the idea of a reunion.

In a 2020 interview with YKIGS, Robinson gave her explanation. “My problem is Rhona being there. I think she’s great. She has never done anything to me. She’s not a bad person at all. I do know that she needs to step back if we are going to do a reunion at all. It just needs to be the four of us.”

Robinson also discussed how she was “kicked out” of the group in 1997 after being displeased with the terms of their deal. “When someone gives you an ultimatum, that is not a choice. That’s what it was,” she said.

“I had been there for 8 years, and we hadn’t made money yet, two pennies a record. We did two albums. Our first album, Born to Sing, the terms were great. We never had an album, we took what we could get. Once you go platinum and you sell a million copies, you’re supposed to renegotiate for better terms. Here we are on the second album with the same terms as the first album. Are you kidding me?”

Since Bennett joined, En Vogue has released two albums: Soul Flower (2004) and Electric Café (2018). The latter album included the top 10 R&B hit “Rocket,” written by Ne-Yo.

Watch Dawn Robinson discuss living in her car below.