A True Messenger

Heather Headley inspired millions with her performance of “Jesus Is Love,” her duet with Smokie Norful that appears on both artists’ new albums, in Washington, D.C. at the HBO live concert special during the presidential inauguration activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d give you the moon

But you’d never know the warmth of the sunshine

I’d give you the world

But exactly what would that do

I’d promise you wings to fly

But how would you ever learn to run

So I wish you all you need

To be than I could be

This is what I wish for you

                                    –I Wish

 

            Heather Headley inspired millions with her performance of “Jesus Is Love,” her duet with Smokie Norful that appears on both artists’ new albums, in Washington, D.C. at the HBO live concert special during the presidential inauguration activities. Dubbed his “favorite singing partner” by classical star Andrea Bocelli whom she joined as a featured artist on his international tour, his “Live In Tuscany” PBS special, and his “Under The Desert Sky” live concert DVD, Headley reached millions more. The accomplished Tony-award winning Broadway star has also wowed audiences daily in her long runs in “Aida” and “Lions King.” But her performance at the Harvard Bible Chapel she attends in Chicago registered just as resoundingly when she sang from her new EMI Gospel album Audience of One. 

Joining songbird Heather Headley at the refurbished Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood where she had recently returned from a jazz cruise, I knew I was in the presence of a beautiful child of God.  BRE has interviewed the multiple Grammy nominated R&B songstress (This Is Who I Am, In My Mind) before, but this new incarnation of Headley on EMI Gospel was just another barometer of her many talents. Comfortable in any setting whether on the world stage or performing for presidents, Headley remains grounded and balanced, beautiful on both the outside and inside.  And what you hear in whatever form is really who she is.

Her performance at President Barack Obama’s inauguration weekend on the HBO special of her single “Jesus Is Love” touched many that day when so much hope was manifest. But she’s actually performed for four of our U.S. presidents. In addition to Obama, she had performed for both Bushes and Clinton. “It was probably the coldest I have ever been in a performance before,” she offered, still recovering from the effects. “The rehearsal day was 10 degrees. We had tents but they had not yet installed the heaters. After I got back to my hotel I had to jump into a hot shower to warm-up. My toes had actually turned purple. The actual day of the performance warmed up to a toasty 22 degrees, but whatever the weather, it was worth it to just be there for such a momentous occasion. It was quite uplifting for me as well.”

This uplifting song may seem a change in genre direction for Headley, but recording a gospel album is a natural transition for her. “I spent most of my life in and around the church,” she explains. “My father was a preacher at a one-room church in Trinidad, and I lived either next to the church or above it most of my life. In fact, it was there where I first began to sing. I used to go in the church when no one was there, close all of the doors and windows and sing to the empty pews,” she confided. “My mother always told me I should do a gospel album and I would say, ‘Maybe someday.’ Now I felt the time was right.”

 

 

Actually, the concept for a gospel CD became concrete after label executives heard her breathtaking performance of the spiritual “I Know The Lord Will Make A Way” from the EMI Gospel/Vector compilation album, Oh Happy Day. They were so impressed that they suggested she record an entire album of songs of faith. Her 2006 CD In My Mind also contained the inspirational song “Change,” co-written with producer Warryn Campbell and Eric Dawkins. “God is such a big part of who I am, who I want to be, and what’s in my mind,” she had declared then.

 

Joining with Grammy award-winning producer Keith Thomas (BeBe & CeCe Winans, Yolanda Adams, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, Whitney  Houston), Headley says it was time to give back some praise for all her blessings. “This is my gift to God,” she declares. “I want to make sure God is happy. This album is for Him.”

Whether it’s the song “Ordinary Me,” inspired by her pastor James MacDonald’s sermons, that starts out, “Looking for an answer, trying to turn the page/but always holding onto the past,” or when she asks “I am a Christian/do you know what that means?” on “Simply Redeemed,” Headley addresses faith concerns that are both personal and universal at the same time. And when she goes astray, she always finds solace and forgiveness in a cover of one of Commissioned’s songs “Running Back To You” or “I Know The Lord Will Make A Way.”  From traditional hymns like “Here I Am To Worship” to the orchestral heights of “Power of the Cross,” Headley gives her all.

 ”Today I still transform myself mentally back to my father’s church in Trinidad by closing the doors and windows to my bedroom and turning the lights out to recreate those conditions,” she confesses. “It makes it easier for me to go back to that little church, the place of creative comfort for me both physically and mentally.  That’s where I went to play, that’s where I learned to play the piano and would use my brush for a microphone. Today, when I record I always request they turn out all the lights.”

Both Gospel and Urban AC radio formats have welcomed the inspiring songs from Audience of One. “My colleagues and I agree,” says Alvin Stowe, Program Director of Radio One’s UAC WQNC-FM (92.7) and inspiration WPZS-FM (Praise 100.9) in Charlotte, NC: “This rendition of ‘Jesus Is Love’ is as good, if not better than the original.”

The accolades continue for this little girl from Trinidad with the angelic voice and full range. “I grew up in the church and that’s where my roots are,” she contends. “If the sincerity of my performance connects, then I have won a true new fan. And even though it would be an honor to be invited to perform in some of the mega churches around the country, that is not a part of my promotional campaign to sell product.”

Indeed not, this truly gifted artist finds her ministry most fulfilling when she is singing to God. When she was talking to her husband about how she used to turn the church into a sanctuary, she says he told her that she was not singing to the empty pews but to God. An audience of one.