My dad tells the story of one of his favourites, Luther vandross, being discovered by David Bowie and Bette midler singing in some down at heel New York nightclub.
Bowie took him and put him in charge of backing vocals on some of his young Americans lp and the rest as they say is history.
Listen to the track - Right.
Not strictly true. Vandross had already sang with with many people, including Roberta Flack and Stevie Wonder.
Bowie "did a Bowie", when he hired Vandross and "reworked" one of Luther's original compositions as his own, (though did give him secondary writing credit). It was basically a Vandross composition with a few changes to the lyrics.
Bowie certainly have him a leg up but didn't discover him.