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Heather Headley extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Heather Headley
Born	October 5, 1974 (1974-10-05) (age 35) Barataria, Trinidad and Tobago
Genres	R&B, soul, inspirational, gospel
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer, actress
Years active	1997–present
Labels	RCA, EMI Gospel
Website	www.heatherheadley.com

Heather Headley (born October 5, 1974) is a Trinidadian R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She has won one Tony Award and one Grammy Award.

Contents 1 Personal life 2 Career 2.1 Music 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 3.2 Singles 4 Other 5 Awards 5.1 Acting 5.2 Music 6 References 7 External links

Personal life

Headley was born in Barataria, Trinidad and Tobago, the daughter of Hannah and Eric Headley.¹ At age four, Headley began playing the music of her native Trinidad, including calypso, reggae, and soca.^{citation needed} In 1989 she moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana in the United States at the age of fifteen with her mother and brother Junior, when her father was offered a job as pastor of McKee Street Church of God.

Headly attended Northrop High School, and was a member of their resident show choir, Charisma. After graduating from Northrop High School, Headley attended Northwestern University to study communications and musical theatre until the last day of her junior year, when she made the difficult decision to become a part of the musical Ragtime and drop out of school.

On September 6, 2003,^{citation needed} Headley married Brian Musso, formerly of the New York Jets. Both attended Northwestern University.² On December 1, 2009 they welcomed their first child John David.

Career

In 1997, she played Nala in The Lion King, the Broadway musical. Headley's performance was well-received and she then originated the title role in the Broadway adaptation of Aida, earning the Tony Award for Best Actress in 2000. In 1999, she appeared in the Encores! production of Do Re Mi, with Nathan Lane, Randy Graff, and Brian Stokes Mitchell. She also starred in a concert version of the musical Dreamgirls alongside fellow Tony Award winners Audra McDonald and Lillias White.

In the autumn of 2006, Heather performed Hal David and Burt Bacharach's song "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", from the 1968 musical Promises, Promises for "The Kennedy Center Presents: The 2006 Mark Twain Prize," honoring playwright Neil Simon. The ceremony was later broadcast on PBS.

On 5 July 2007 Headley did a guest appearance for Andrea Bocelli's Vivere Live in Tuscany concert in Lajatico, Italy. They performed Vivo Per Lei and The Prayer. Headley sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" (also known as "America") with Josh Groban on January 18, 2009 during the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.³ On March 12, 2009, Headley sang, "I Wish" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Music

Headley released her debut album, This Is Who I Am, in October 2002 on RCA Records. Although its first single, "He Is", was not very successful, the second single, "I Wish I Wasn't", achieved moderate success. The work on this album earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and for Best New Artist.

Her second album, In My Mind, was delayed due to the various executive shake-ups associated with RCA parent BMG's merger with Sony.

Under BMG North America chairman/CEO Clive Davis for the first time, Headley released her second album In My Mind in January 2006. The title track "In My Mind" ( produced by India.Arie collaborator Shannon Sanders ) was released as the first single; and its music video was directed by Diane Martel. The song reached number-one on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The second single "Me Time" was released to Urban AC outlets only. An album track, "Am I Worth It", served to promote Headley's New March of Dimes Educational Campaign "I Want My 9 Months".

In 2009, Headley, along with Al Green, released a version of the song People Get Ready on the compilation album Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration.⁴

On the 31st of January 2010, Heather won her first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album for Audience of One on the EMI Gospel label.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	US	US R&B
2002	This Is Who I Am (Certified: Gold)	#38	#14
2006	In My Mind (Certified: Gold)	#5	#1
2009	Audience of One	#27	#6

Singles

Year	Song	US Hot 100	US R&B	US Dance	US Gospel	Hot Adult R&B	Hot R&B Recurrents	Album
2002	"He Is"	90	38	4	-	-	2	This Is Who I Am
2003	"I Wish I Wasn't"	55	15	5	-	-	5	This Is Who I Am
2005	"In My Mind"	75	16	1	-	-	4	In My Mind
2006	"Me Time"	-	35	-	-	5	4	In My Mind
2008	"Jesus Is Love"	-	90	-	10	29	-	Audience of One

Other

Name of the Song	Year	Album
Can You Feel the Love Tonight	1997	The Lion King on Broadway Cast Recording
Shadowland	1997	The Lion King on Broadway Cast Recording
The Madness of King Scar	1997	The Lion King on Broadway Cast Recording
Love Will Find a Way	1998	Return to Pride Rock
People Get Ready (with Al Green)	2009	Oh Happy Day

Awards

Acting

Year	Category	Role	Result
Tony Awards
2000	Best Actress in a Musical	Aida	Won
Sarah Siddons Award
2000	Sarah Siddons Award	Work in Chicago theatre	Won

Music

Year	Category	Recording	Result
Grammy Awards
2004	Best New Artist	N/A	Nominated
2004	Best Female R&B Vocal Performance	"I Wish I Wasn't"	Nominated
2010	Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance	"Jesus Is Love"	Nominated
2010	Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album	"Audience Of One"	Won
Billboard Music Awards
2003	R&B/Hip-Hop New Artist of the Year	N/A	Nominated
NAACP Image Awards
2003	Outstanding New Artist	N/A	Nominated
2003	Outstanding Female Artist	N/A	Nominated
Soul Train Awards
2002	Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist	"He Is"	Nominated
Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards
2003	R&B/Soul Album of the Year - Solo	"This Is Who I Am"	Won
2003	Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist - Solo	"He Is"	Won
2003	Best R&B/Soul Single - Solo	"He Is"	Nominated
BET J/Centric
2006	Cool Like That Award	N/A	Nominated

References

External links

• Official website
• Heather Headley at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical Donna McKechnie (1976) · Dorothy Loudon (1977) · Liza Minnelli (1978) · Angela Lansbury (1979) · Patti LuPone (1980) · Lauren Bacall (1981) · Jennifer Holliday (1982) · Natalia Makarova (1983) · Chita Rivera (1984) · Bernadette Peters (1986) · Maryann Plunkett (1987) · Joanna Gleason (1988) · Ruth Brown (1989) · Tyne Daly (1990) · Lea Salonga (1991) · Faith Prince (1992) · Chita Rivera (1993) · Donna Murphy (1994) · Glenn Close (1995) · Donna Murphy (1996) · Bebe Neuwirth (1997) · Natasha Richardson (1998) · Bernadette Peters (1999) · Heather Headley (2000) Complete list · (1948-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)