Heather Headley: a music journey that began barefoot in Trinidad, led to Broadway and just took a new twist

Flipping your career from Broadway to R&B is like switching from basketball to baseball. All muscles are good--but you need to flex a particular set for each game. Among the successful few are Melba Moore and Stephanie Mills. Next up to bat is Trinidad's own Heather Headley, the vocal luminary who shone in Elton John's Aida and The Lion King and who releases her debut album, This Is Who I Am (RCA), next month.

"I think of Broadway as a beautiful detour and good training for what's to come," she boldly declares. "I grew up in the country and ever since I was a little girl running barefoot, I've wanted to make an album."

Riding rhythms built by marquee producers like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and occasionally spiced by Caribbean beats, Headley's voice projects the crystal articulation of her stage roots--minus the gospel histrionics you might expect of someone who learned to sing in her parents' rural village church. "Particularly being a Trini, I identify with Aida [the beautiful Nubian enslaved by Egypt]. I don't like being placed in a box." Whether her quest to bust out from stage to stadium will succeed, she'll always be guided by this visceral desire: "I want to hear the applause."

Vivien Goldman is a frequent Interview contributor.

Location: FAST ASHLEYS, NYC. For fashion and photo details see page 247.

Makeup: CYNTHIA SOBEK.

Photographer: KAI REGAN.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning