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Biography
Deniece Williams first began singing at her church, performing as part of their gospel choir. WIth her mother being an established singer, Williams always looked up to her, whilst finding influence from the likes of Stevie Wonder, Earth WInd & Fire and Patti LaBelle. Upon adulthood, Willaims worked several low paying jobs, finding little energy to try her hand at music, which soon changed after being introduced to Stevie Wonder by her cousin. Six months later, Williams flew to Detroit, US for an audition, becoming the successful candidate through her rendition of "Teach Me Tonight." Williams became part of a trio of backing singers for Wonder, known as Wonderlove.
Gaining this first exposure to the music business, Williams toured with Wonder over several years, helping to develop her talents as an artist whilst also juggling these commitments with raising her two sons. In 1975, Williams left the group, having teamed up with producer Maurice White for her first solo release. Distributed through Columbia Records, "This Is Niecey" was a hit, featuring the single "free" which reached number two on the Billboard R&B Chart.
In 1977, her second effort arrived, with "Song Bird" again delivering a number of hit singles, including a duet with Johnny Mathis, which broke into the Top Ten. Moving to ARC, Williams continued to release records, unable to find another hit until "Silly" broke into the Top Ten, with Williams gathering steam and finding a number one single in 1982 with "It's Gonna Take a Miracle." Hits continued throughout the early '80s, moving to a gospel sound in 1987 with "From the Beginning." The album was critically acclaimed, earning Williams a Grammy Award for the single, "They Say," also winning at the prestigious awards ceremony for two further singles, "I Surender" and "I Believe In You."
Focusing on gospel, album releases continued throughout the 1990s, again being awarded with a Grammy Award in 1999 for 'Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album' with "This Is My Song." Whilst her output slowed down into the new millennium, Williams was still scoring hits, breaking into the Billboard R&B Singles chart with her 2007 song, "Grateful- The Redication," her first charting single since 1989.
Live reviews
I suppose if you were lucky enough to have a man as iconic as Stevie Wonder as a teacher, you have a destiny of sorts within the world of soul and jazz. This would seem to ring true for vocalist and songwriter June Deniece Chandler who cut her teeth as a backing singer for the great man before stepping into a spotlight all of her own with a natural confidence and charisma. It seemed clear from the offset that some of Stevie's passionate traits had heavily resonated with Williams and she still performs with equal enthusiasm all these years later.
Although her commercial heyday occurred during the 70s and 80s, soul seems to be a genre that moves with the times and new fans celebrate and enjoy the older work as much as the contemporary. So therefore the venue this evening is packed full of revellers of different age ranges all united by their love of Deniece's sultry vocal. As she is now in her mid-60s she relies on the support of her wonderful backing band yet steals focus during heartfelt renditions of favourites including 'It's Gonna Take a Miracle' and 'Free'. It is a night of transcendent soul from an artist who has more history with the genre than most.
sean-ward
It’s refreshing to hear of a singer/songwriter who has done as well as Deniece Williams has. A Grammy Award winning artist, she’s been going strong since the 70s, and although her solo music production has somewhat dwindled over the years, she maintains a large following, and she is still an incredible performer.
Seeing her in concert, it was awesome to hear her revisit her old hits, especially Let’s Hear it For The Boy, which was featured on the Footloose soundtrack. Her performance sounded exactly as it was on the soundtrack, which was astounding as it was so many years ago! She’s still a very powerful singer with a lot of conviction, and in that hit track, she added an extra chorus because the audience were enjoying it so much. She was dancing around the stage, and let the crowd sing an entire chorus without her joining in.
She still has her incredible four octave range, and put it through its paces with tracks such as Free, and I Surrender All. She thanked the audience countless times for being there, which was great to see her appreciation. The atmosphere after the show stayed sky high, everyone had the best night!
yazhow
