The song "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day", which was a cover version of the Bill Withers song " Lovely Day", was included on the soundtrack to The Bodyguard. Visage provided lead vocals and was the recording artist of another dance act assembled by Clivilles and Cole, The S.O.U.L. After the group's breakup, Visage collaborated with the freestyle dance act TKA as a guest vocalist on the song " Crash (Have Some Fun)". The group had several hits, the most famous being " Two to Make It Right". Visage auditioned and won a place for Seduction, an R&B and dance vocal trio assembled by Robert Clivilles and David Cole that signed with A&M Records in 1990. However, participating in New York night life was not Visage's sole occupation and during the day she worked as a receptionist at the shop Casablanca and Fundamental Things in the New York garment district. It is said that The Love Ball is where Madonna first witnessed voguing, the inspiration for her song " Vogue". In 1989, Visage performed at "The Love Ball", which was organized by Bartsch as a benefit for the Design Industries Foundation For AIDS. Visage also met her future friend and co-star RuPaul for the first time in the late 1980s, when she attended club nights and parties hosted by Susanne Bartsch. However, because people pronounced it incorrectly she decided to change it to " visage" ("face" in French - a language she studied during middle and high school), a name she has stuck with. Michelle adopted her surname, Visage, after gaining the nickname " cara" ("face" in Portuguese) from the people she spent time with in the New York ball scene. She also became involved with Cesar Valentino and the pair appeared voguing together on the television show The Latin Connection in 1988, which they said was the first time voguing had appeared on national TV.
Visage became prominent in the New York drag ball scene and learned voguing from various people including Willi Ninja. In New York she was active in the club scene and her mother, Arlene, even gave her a fake ID so she could make connections to help further her career. After finishing her studies she stayed in New York City to pursue a career as an actress. Growing up, Visage looked up to Madonna, Belinda Carlisle, Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks, Cyndi Lauper and Dale Bozzio.
She then moved to New York and attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan for two years. When Visage was 16, she won a Madonna lookalike competition. She attended South Plainfield High School in South Plainfield, New Jersey, graduating in 1986. She was adopted and was aware of this from an early age.