Heather Headley
Heather Headley is a Trinidadian American singer, songwriter, and actor renowned for her contributions to Broadway and her music career. Born on October 5, 1974, in San Fernando, Trinidad, she initially gained fame for her Tony Award-winning performance in the title role of the Broadway musical *Aida* in 2000. Headley started her artistic journey at a young age, performing in her father's church and later pursuing theater at Northwestern University before dropping out to join the original cast of *Ragtime* on Broadway. Her role as Nala in *The Lion King* and subsequent performances in *The Color Purple* and *The Bodyguard* musical further established her as a versatile performer.
In addition to her theatrical success, Headley has released several albums, with *In My Mind* (2006) being particularly well-received, earning her a gold certification. She has also won a Grammy Award for her gospel album, *Audience of One*. Headley's career continues to evolve, including recent performances in television and film, such as the Netflix series *Sweet Magnolias* and the Aretha Franklin biopic *Respect*. A dedicated family woman and a devout evangelical Christian, she resides in Chicago with her husband and three children.
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Heather Headley
Contribution: Heather Headley is a Trinidadian American singer, songwriter, and actor. She is best known for her Tony Award-winning performance in the title role of the Broadway musical Aida (2000), for her 2006 album In My Mind, and her 2016 supporting role in the Broadway revival The Color Purple.
Background
Heather Headley was born on October 5, 1974, in San Fernando on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. She grew up in the town of Barataria, where her father, Iric Headley, was a pastor. She has a younger brother, Iric Headley Jr.
Headley placed second in a radio talent show when she was only two years old. At age four, she began learning to play the piano and would perform and sing regularly at her father’s church. Headley attended primary school at St. Ursula’s Girls’ Anglican School in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, and then returned to Barataria for secondary education at St. George’s College.
The Headleys moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1989, when Headley’s father was offered a job at the McKee Street Church of God. Headley struggled with the cold weather and the culture shock at first, but she eventually acclimated. She attended Northrop High School, where she joined the show choir and acted in the musicals Funny Girl and Man of La Mancha. During her senior year of high school, she played the female lead in a local performance of The Fantasticks.
After high school, Headley entered Northwestern University, where she studied communications and musical theater. She began working professionally during her sophomore year, and her impressive performances in Chicago productions of Dreamgirls and The World Goes Round attracted the attention of talent agents from major theatrical production companies. In 1996, at the end of her junior year of college, she was asked to audition for the musical Ragtime. Headley ultimately dropped out of Northwestern in order to join the production, which premiered in Toronto in December 1996 and made its Broadway debut in January 1998.
Career
Following Ragtime, Headley became the first actor to play the role of Nala in the Elton John and Tim Rice musical The Lion King, which premiered on Broadway in October 1997. The Lion King would go on to become one of the most successful musicals in the history of Broadway, becoming the highest-grossing Broadway show to date in April 2012.
During the show’s run, Headley auditioned for and won the title role of the musical Aida, an adaptation of Giuseppe Verdi’s famous opera about an enslaved princess, also by John and Rice. The show premiered under the name Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida in Atlanta, Georgia, in September 1998 and ran until early November, after which Headley, who had taken a hiatus from The Lion King in July of that year, returned to the role of Nala for another year.
Aida had a second run in Chicago, from November 1999 to January 2000, before premiering on Broadway in March 2000. Headley’s performance as Aida made her a star, earning her the 2000 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for best actress in a musical. She was also named to People magazine’s list of the most beautiful people and Essence magazine’s list of thirty women to watch for the year 2000, honors that helped lay the foundation for her crossover from theatrical to musical stardom.
Headley’s Broadway success attracted the attention of record-label executives eager to market her vocal talents as an R&B artist. While Headley was interested in pursuing a career as a recording artist, she insisted during negotiations that her music would not focus on sexuality or include profanity, as she did not want to compromise her image or her beliefs. The aptly titled This Is Who I Am was released by RCA Records in October 2002, featuring famed producers James “Jimmy Jam” Harris and Terry Lewis. The album would earn Headley two Grammy Award nominations, one for best female R&B vocal performance and one for best new artist.
Headley’s sabbatical from the Broadway stage continued throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s. She returned to the recording studio and released her sophomore album, In My Mind, in 2006. The album received mixed critical reviews but was a resounding commercial success, earning the singer her second consecutive gold sales certification.
Headley’s next two studio albums were composed primarily of cover songs. Audience of One was released in 2009 by EMI Gospel, a division of EMI Christian Music Group, and features gospel hymns alongside a handful of original songs. The album won the 2010 Grammy Award for best contemporary R&B gospel album. Similarly, Only One in the World (2012) includes pop and R&B songs and show tunes in addition to Headley’s original songs, two of which she co-wrote with her brother.
In 2011, Headley agreed to return to the stage for the first time in over a decade to star as Rachel Maron in the musical adaptation of the feature film The Bodyguard (1992), a work made famous by one of her childhood idols, Whitney Houston. The musical, which had spent six years in production, premiered in London in late 2012. Headley gave her final performance as Rachel in August 2013, after which English singer-songwriter Beverley Knight took over the role. For her role, Headley was nominated for a 2013 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
Headley's next major performance was as the Witch in a St. Louis production of Stephen Sondheim's fairytale-inspired musical Into the Woods, which was staged in 2015. She noted in interviews that she initially found Sondheim's minor-chord music intimidating.
In May 2016, Headley returned to Broadway. She took over the part of nightclub singer Shug Avery from Jennifer Hudson in the Tony Award-winning revival of The Color Purple, an adaptation of the Alice Walker novel. Headley remained with the production for six months and was praised for the intensity and energy she brought to the role. She followed that up with several appearances on television, including recurring roles in She's Gotta Have It in 2017 and Chicago Med in 2018 and 2019. She was also cast in a starring role for the Netflix original drama Sweet Magnolias. In 2021, Headley played Clara Ward in the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. She starred alongside Sara Bareilles and Neil Patrick Harris in the musical revival of Into the Woods in 2022.
Headley also continued touring and performing concerts, either solo or with other artists, such as Italian opera star Andrea Bocelli. In 2023, she headlined the Indianapolis Symphony Opera (ISO), opening the concert with her own rendition of "Over the Rainbow." In 2024, she performed in New York City for the first time in a decade.
Impact
In an age of entertainment where multiplatform talent is increasingly common, few vocal or acting talents have achieved as much critical and commercial success as Heather Headley. She became widely regarded throughout the industry for her industrious work ethic, which she has repeatedly attributed to her modest upbringing and the devotion of her parents and her brother. In 2000, the mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, declared June 10 to be Heather Headley Day.
Personal Life
Headley married Brian Musso, a former NFL football player turned investment adviser, in 2003. The couple lives in Chicago with their two sons (born in 2009 and 2015, respectively) and daughter (born in 2019). Headley is a devout evangelical Christian.
Bibliography
Headley, Heather. “Heather Headley, Moving from Broadway to R & B.” Interview by Ed Gordon. NPR Music. NPR, 22 May 2006. Web. 5 Sept. 2013.
Headley, Heather. “Honest, Funny, Awesome: Afrobella Interviews Heather Headley.” Afrobella. Afrobella, 2 Jan. 2013. Web. 5 Sept. 2013.
Headley, Heather. “Trinidad’s Remarkable Heather Headley.” Interview by Caroline Taylor. Discover Trinidad & Tobago. Media and Editorial Projects, May 2012. Web. 5 Sept. 2013.
"Heather Headley." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0372186. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
Jones, Kenneth. “June 10 Is Heather Headley Day in Fort Wayne, IN.” Playbill.com. Playbill, 10 June 2000. Web. 5 Sept. 2013.
Kilbane, Kevin. “The Best of Times for Singer Heather Headley.” News-Sentinel [Fort Wayne]. Fort Wayne Newspapers, 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 5 Sept. 2013.
Moody, Nekesa Mumbi. “Heather Headley Begins New Role.” Ledger [Lakeland] 28 Oct. 2002: D6. Print.
Paulson, Michael. "Heather Headley’S 15-Year Intermission." The New York Times, 5 July 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/theater/heather-headleys-15-year-intermission.html. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
Taylor, Caroline. “Heather Headley: A Star with Her Feet on the Ground.” Caribbean Beat. Caribbean Airlines/Media and Editorial Projects, May/June 2012. Web. 5 Sept. 2013.