Lisa Lisa, '80s Pop Icon, Recalls Eddie Murphy's 'Crush' on Her — and Turning DownComing to America(Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Lisa ‘Lisa Lisa’ Velez; Eddie Murphy.Photo:Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; Alain BENAINOUS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; Alain BENAINOUS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty

Lisa Velezis going back into the vault of her life for Lifetime’s newest biopic.

InCan You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story, a film named after one of her biggest songs, the pioneering ’80s pop star and former frontwoman of chart-topping freestyle band Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, is shown as a young woman with numerous battles on her journey to the top, and even more once she got there. Ahead of the film’s premiere on Saturday, Feb. 1, she tells PEOPLE about that tumultuous journey, and some mistakes she made along the way.

“2025 is the 40th anniversary of ‘I Wonder If I Take You Home’” says Velez, 59, of her breakout 1985 hit. Approaching that milestone inspired her to finally tell her full story. “I have to tell you, it was very therapeutic for me. I had three major breakdowns while filming this.”

Lisa Velez.Courtesy of Lifetime

Courtesy of Lifetime

In the movie, Velez plays her own mother, while Jearnest Corchado steps into the star’s shoes, playing the young Puerto Rican singer from Hell’s Kitchen who got her big break at age 14, teaming up with Cult Jam to form a Latin hip-hop group whose songs blazed up the charts and broke barriers.

Breaking into the music industry as a kid “was a struggle,” Velez says. “But I was going to do anything and everything to a certain point, to make sure that I kept my gig.”

Jearnest Corchado stars in Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story.Courtesy of Lifetime

Bre-Z stars in Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story.Courtesy of Lifetime

Another mainstay in her life at the peak of her fame was her first husband, John Yulfo. The two married young and Velez says he is behind one of her biggest career missteps.

“I was offered the part of Lisa inComing to America,” she says of being hand-picked to play superstarEddie Murphy’s love interest, a character seemingly named after her, in the hit 1988 comedy. “I was given the script and they wanted me to take it.”

But real love got in the way. “God, me being the Latina that I am, and young female, I was married at the time, and I asked — dummy that I was — I asked my then-husband.”

She continues, “I said, ‘Look, this is what I want to do,’ and he said, ‘No, you are not going to do that,’ because he knew about Eddie’s crush on me. So I said no. Can you believe it? Dummy. But that’s OK. Things happen for a reason. The actress who played Lisa [Shari Headley], she was fantastic and still is.”

Eddie Murphy in ‘Coming to America’.Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

Not long after her short-lived first marriage, Velez’s world was turned upside down whenshe learned she had breast cancer. She kept the diagnosis private — a secret from everyone, including her own family, until many years later.

“I had to do it that way because back then we didn’t have support groups and things like that to help us with it,” she explains. “And being the only female of the group and the lead singer and the struggles that I went through being in this group, it was hard for me to say anything because I felt like it would’ve been taken away from me. I was so afraid that they were going to stop me and I needed to take care of my family.”

Angie Martinez and Jearnest Corchado star in Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story.Courtesy of Lifetime

She pushed through painful treatments in silence and kept on performing. “It was emotional watching some of the things in the film,” her manager Menage tells PEOPLE. “I shared a room with Lisa and she didn’t know about my drug problem or my issues with that, and I didn’t know about the cancer.”

Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story.Courtesy of Lifetime

Thankfully, “I’m still cancer free,” says Velez who had additional tumors removed a few years ago. “Thank you, Lord. I keep fighting.” And the singer, credited with paving the way for fellow Latin crossover stars likeGloria EstefanandJennifer Lopez, isn’t slowing down any time soon.

“I never stopped performing,” says Velez, a mother of two, who’s currently on the road and about to kick off her nationwide 40th anniversary tour. “Music changes and fame goes up and down for everybody, but I never stopped. You’ve got to keep moving.”

Lisa Velez performing live on The Tamron Hall Show.DISNEY/Paula Lobo

DISNEY/Paula Lobo

Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Storypremieres Saturday, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.

source: people.com