Vanessa Williams

As a singer, Vanessa Williams is known most for impeccably rendered adult contemporary ballads, but she is as versatile behind the microphone as she is on television and in films, with many hits scattered across the pop, dance, and R&B charts. Williams entered the spotlight as the first Black woman crowned Miss America, and a few years later established herself as an actress and recording artist. From the start, she was a force, as her 1988 debut album, the gold-selling The Right Stuff, featured a pair of Grammy-nominated performances ("The Right Stuff" and "Dreamin'") that separately topped the dance and R&B charts and led to an additional nod for Best New Artist. Eight additional Grammy nominations would follow for Williams as she released The Comfort Zone (1991) and The Sweetest Days (1994), platinum albums highlighted by the number one pop hit "Save the Best for Last" and the Top Ten "Colors of the Wind." Williams concentrated on acting work after Everlasting Love (2005) and The Real Thing (2009), but she closed a 15-year gap between albums with Survivor (2024), an eclectic set incorporating torch songs, house anthems, big-band updates, and Latin pop material.

Vanessa Lynn Williams was born March 18, 1963, in the Bronx and raised in the upstate New York town of Millwood to parents who were music teachers. She loved performing musical theater as a teenager, and won a scholarship to study it at Syracuse University in 1981. In the meantime, she entered beauty pageants with considerable success. She represented New York in the 57th Miss America pageant and became the first Black woman to be crowned the winner. Her triumph was short-lived. Before her historic victory, Williams had posed for a series of nude photos for Penthouse, and when the magazine published them in 1984, the ensuing scandal forced her to resign as Miss America. Undaunted, Williams pursued her first love, singing. She backed George Clinton on his 1986 album R&B Skeletons in the Closet, including the single "Do Fries Go with That Shake?" Williams also returned to acting, making her feature film debut with a small role in The Pickup Artist in 1987. The renewed boost in profile helped land her a record deal with Mercury/PolyGram subsidiary Wing.

Williams' debut album, The Right Stuff, was released in February 1988, featuring a mix of uptempo pop-R&B material and adult contemporary ballads. The title track was a decent-sized hit, narrowly missing the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 but topping the dance chart. The ballad "Dreamin'" became Williams' first Top Ten pop single, and went to number one on the R&B chart. The Right Stuff went gold and resulted in three Grammy nominations: Best New Artist, and consecutive nods for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female ("The Right Stuff" and "Dreamin'"). Williams subsequently appeared in several TV movies. Her August 1991 sophomore set The Comfort Zone was a star-maker. It spawned another R&B chart-topper in "Running Back to You," but the real story was the ballad "Save the Best for Last," a ubiquitous across-the-board smash that became Williams' first number one pop hit. The title track solidified Williams' growing reputation for sensual adult pop, and the album went on to sell over two million copies. "Running Back to You" was up for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards. At the 35th awards, both "The Comfort Zone" and "Save the Best for Last" were nominated in the same category, and the latter was also a Record of the Year nominee. Williams earned more accolades with "Love Is," a duet recorded with Brian McKnight for the soundtrack of Beverly Hills, 90210. Another Top Ten hit, it was also nominated for a Grammy (Best Pop Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocal).

In 1994, Williams returned to her roots by accepting her first starring role on Broadway. She took over the lead in Kiss of the Spider Woman and appeared on a re-recorded version of the cast album. That December, she also released her third album, The Sweetest Days, which found her branching out into jazzy pop and torch songs. Its upscale, sophisticated ambience was exemplified by the title song, a Top 20 pop hit, and "The Way That You Love," a number six hit on the dance chart -- gave Williams her second platinum certification. In 1995, Williams was tabbed to sing the commercial version of "Colors of the Wind," the theme to the Disney film Pocahontas. A number four pop hit, it also won an Academy Award, and was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards. "The Way That You Love" was nominated the same year in the corresponding R&B category.

1996 saw Williams release Star Bright, a holiday recording nominated for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album -- giving her 11 Grammy nominations in total. Additionally that year, Williams landed her biggest feature film role to that point when she starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser. She followed it with an appearance in the ensemble drama Soul Food in 1997. Her fourth proper album and last for Mercury, Next, was released in August 1997. "Oh How the Years Go By," originally recorded for the compilation NBA at 50: A Musical Celebration, was its biggest hit, reaching number six on the adult contemporary chart. After the release of Greatest Hits: The First Ten Years in late 1998, Williams remained relatively quiet on the musical front, save for the occasional live performance. She concentrated more on her acting career, and was prominently featured films such as Dance with Me, Light It Up, and the 2000 remake of Shaft.

Williams' work as an actress during the first decade of the 2000s was highlighted by award-winning work in the television series Ugly Betty. In addition, she released three studio albums for Lava/Atlantic. Silver & Gold, her second holiday recording, was issued in 2004, and it was followed by 2005's Everlasting Love and 2009's The Real Thing. Each of the latter two LPs yielded a Top Ten dance single -- respectively "You Are Everything" and "The Real Thing." A longer break from music started in 2010 with main roles on Desperate Housewives, 666 Park Avenue, and Daytime Divas, among numerous guest appearances and recurring roles on other programs. During the same period, she was in several films and did extensive voice work. She returned to music in 2024 with her ninth album, Survivor. The Warner-distributed LP led with the dance singles "Legs (Keep Dancing)" and "Bop!," the latter of which was a collaboration with Trixie Mattel and Lion Babe (a duo featuring Jillian Hervey, Williams' daughter). A wide-ranging set, it also contained a version of "La Costa" (originally recorded by Natalie Cole), an update of Cab Calloway's "Zaz Zuh Zaz" (featuring trumpeter Wynton Marsalis), and additional contributions from the likes of André Cymone, Mic Murphy, and "The Right Stuff" co-writer Kipper Jones. ~ Andy Kellman & Steve Huey