SWV : Friends Find Success in the Top 10--Twice

En Vogue had better watch out.

In the female vocal group sweepstakes SWV is gaining--and fast .

Unknown until its debut album was released in October, SWV--which stands for Sisters With Voices--has just accomplished one of pop music’s most difficult feats: two singles in the Top 10 at the same time--”I’m So Into You” and “Weak.” That exposure has helped push the album, “It’s About Time,” past the 1 million sales mark.

The trio--Cheryl (Coko) Gamble, Tamara (Taj) Johnson and Leanne (Lelee) Lyons--is as startled by all this sudden success as everyone else.

“We’re just teen-agers from the Bronx and Brooklyn,” says Gamble, SWV’s 19-year-old lead singer. “What are we doing challenging En Vogue?”

But the success didn’t surprise Skip Miller, the RCA executive who signed the trio last year: “We were thinking the next big trend would be hip-hop with singing. We wanted a group with a street feel--a female version of male groups like Jodeci and Guy.”

The members of SWV were girlhood chums in the New York area who sang together for fun. Gamble and Lyons worked in gospel groups before getting together with Johnson and forming SWV.

“I wanted to get into R&B; because it has a different feel,” Gamble says. “I can sing about different subjects--and deliver some feminist messages.”

Wisely, the group--despite some sly seductiveness--isn’t straying into En Vogue’s glamour turf. The SWV look accents simplicity, including outfits you’d expect the group’s youthful audience to wear themselves.

To eventually challenge En Vogue, SWV needs to beef up its performing skills, a point Gamble acknowledges.

“We’ve been (mostly) singing in shows where we sing live to backing tracks,” she says. “We’re upgrading that performing thing now. When we get that down, the sky’s the limit.”