En Vogue singer Dawn Robinson says she’s been living in her car for 3 years

Published: Mar. 14, 2025 at 1:24 PM MST
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(Gray News) – Dawn Robinson, a founding member of the R&B girl group En Vogue, revealed she has been living in her car for the past three years.

In a YouTube video posted Tuesday, Robinson said she was living with her parents in Las Vegas in 2020 but decided to move out following arguments with her mom.

She said she lived in her car for a month while still in Las Vegas, but then she moved to Los Angeles to stay with her former manager.

That also didn’t work out due to space issues, so she ended up staying at a hotel for eight months, which her manager paid for.

Robinson said she struggled to find an apartment, which would have been “way cheaper” than the hotel, but alleged that her manager wanted her to stay in the hotel. She claims it felt as if he wanted to have control over her and have Robinson depend on him to pay for her living space.

En Vogue members from left: Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron-Bragg, Terry Ellis and Maxine Jones...
En Vogue members from left: Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron-Bragg, Terry Ellis and Maxine Jones sing "Hold On" for member of the press during interviews after performing at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, Sunday, July 5, 2009.(KATINA REVELS | AP Photo/Katina Revels)

Eventually, she decided to research “car life.”

“I had been researching ‘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. And I loved what I was seeing. I just thought, ‘Wow, I can do that, I can do this, I think!’ And I ended up in my car, and I’ve been here for three years,” Robinson said.

Robinson said she left the hotel on March 9, 2022.

“I felt free. It was a sense of freedom that I had,” she said. “I just felt like it was the right thing to do.”

She said the experience is teaching her more about herself.

“I’m learning more about who I am as a person, as a woman,” she said. “If you would have said to me while I was in En Vogue that I was going to be living in my car one day, I would have been like ‘Huh? No, I’m always going to have an apartment. I can’t live in my car.’ But we say that we can’t do certain things before we even know that we’re capable.”

She revealed that her dog, Max, died while living in the car following 16 years together.

“Longer than any relationship I’ve ever had,” Robinson said of her dog. “But my baby, I miss him.”

Ultimately, the singer said she is glad that she “made this choice” and wouldn’t trade her experience for the world, but she hopes at some point to have a resurgence in her career.

“Would I have an apartment right now if I had a choice? I would. I’m not going to lie. But am I glad that I did this? Absolutely,” she said.

As far as showers go, Robinson said she has a gym membership and showers there.

She encourages her fans to confront their fears and “do the scary.”

“I needed to do this alone and without anybody’s judgment or opinions. I needed to do this for me,” Robinson said.

En Vogue is known for hits like “My Lovin' (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” and “Free Your Mind.”

Robinson was one of the founding members of En Vogue in 1989 before leaving the group in 1997.