Written by Pana: January 25th, 2021.
This week’s artist of the week is R&B/Gospel singer Jazmine Sullivan. If you don’t know Jazmine and her music let us put you on real quick. Not only does she have one of the rawest voices in the industry but, she is also one of the best songwriters. Music has been a part of Jazmine’s life since she was a little kid. She started singing at her church’s choir when she was younger which led her to being signed to her first label. Her very first performance was when she was just 11 years old on It’s Showtime at the Apollo where she sang her own version of Reverend Richard White’s “Accept What God Allows”. Jazmine’s debut mainstream song was “Need you bad” which was released in 2008. The song was featured on her first album Fearless which also had hit singles such as “In Love with Another Man” and “Bust your Windows”. The album was co-produced by Missy Elliot and put Jazmine on the charts almost instantly. There just isn’t any competition vocally for Jazmine Sullivan. Her voice is a very rich contralto that is powerful yet controlled. The range, the notes, the control, she is simply unmatched. She has written hit songs not only for herself but for many other artists such as Christina Milian, Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, Missy Elliot, and many more. I mean she does have 11 Grammy nominations. Since the release of her first album she has released Love Me Back in 2010, Reality Show in 2015, and her most recent Heaux Tales released in 2021.
In between every album release Jazmine took a well needed break. In an interview with Billboard she explains, “I’ll just chill for a second and then a little break turns into a longer break. But as long as it turns out to be, I do feel breaks are necessary”. Creating, producing, writing, and putting an album together is not only a lot of work but extremely stressful. But things took a turn for the worst after the singer released her album Reality Show. Her most recent hiatus from music was because she was dealing with an abusive relationship. In an interview with Joe Budden she explains, “So I had a horrible relationship that resulted in domestic abuse at the time. Some things happened in it that I never thought I would experience. I let some things happen that I never thought I would, and I kinda became a different person. And sometimes you think you’ve healed but you haven’t. And like you’re going about your life and situations come up and you start kinda acting out things from the past that you didn’t even know were still there.” But she did not let her bad experiences define her, she instead took her pain and healing and turned it into music. One of the themes of her newest album Heaux Tales, is the theme of Women Empowerment. The album is for all women especially those who are feeling unappreciated and undervalued and speaks to the issue of female inclusion in the music industry. Since it’s release Heaux Tales has become her second album to be named number one on the Top R&B albums chart. So whats next for Jazmine? The singer will be performing at the Superbowl 55 in Tampa Bay, Florida. She will be performing the national anthem along with singer Eric Church. Tune into the Superbowl on Sunday February 7th at 6:30 pm est. Check out her music with the links below! Until next week, Ciao Bellas.
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/jazmine-sullivan-essentials/pl.834ca73c9af449dd801aeec161cccbf4
Sources:
Billboard.com
Hot97.com
