Holliday’s singing
a happy tune

By Rita Charleston
For the Times

She was one of our favorite dream girls in the ’80s, and maybe one of the best known. Even Jennifer Hudson, who played the role of Effie White in the movie version, acknowledged Jennifer Holliday’s brilliant appearance in the original stage show.
In fact, Holliday’s performance in Dreamgirls garnered her Broadway’s 1982 Tony award for best actress in a musical. She also captured her first Grammy award for R&B female vocal performance for her signature song and top-40 hit from the show, And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.
But for Holliday, it wasn’t all accolades and awards. The truth is that Holliday made headlines again in late 2006 when Dreamgirls was adapted to the big screen. The exposure allowed her to tell the world more of the years of clinical depression and weight fluctuation that dominated her life after she left the Broadway musical, as well as the personal healing and redemption she later found.
Back on track, Holliday gives concerts throughout the world and performs with many symphony orchestras across the country. She will be appearing for one night only — on Friday, June 1 — with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts.
Born in Houston, Texas, in 1960, Holliday says she originally thought about becoming an attorney or, in some way, helping others in the community. But then fate stepped in to shape her future in a way she never dreamed of.
"I was seventeen years old and singing in the church choir when I was discovered by Jamie Patterson, a dancer from New York who was touring in the national company of A Chorus Line," she explained.
Patterson brought the teenager to New York and arranged for an audition. Holliday sang her mother’s favorite hymn, God Will Take Care of You, and she was hired that very day for the lead role in the Broadway revival of Your Arms’ Too Short to Box With God.
She remembers that being transplanted and singing in the show weren’t difficult for her even at that young age.
"What was difficult was learning about how to work with a lot of grown people, getting along with them, and learning the business," Holliday said. "Actually, being onstage and singing was where I could find refuge and find some kind of way of protecting myself. But when I got out there in the real world, that’s where things got tough."
By the age of 21, Holliday was hired to portray the heroine, Effie "Melody" White, in Dreamgirls, winning rave reviews for her performance.
Her second Grammy came three short years later for her rendition of Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday, a moving tribute to the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.
Holliday also appeared on such shows as Ellen, Hang Time, Touched by an Angel, and more. She made her film debut in The Rising Place, an independent film in which she performed one of three original songs she wrote for the picture.
She’s also performed at the White House on numerous occasions for presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton, and has received an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
But with a voice like hers, there’s no holding her back — whether punctuating a presidential ecumenical service at the White House with a rousing "down-home" gospel hymn, or shaking the rafters of a concert hall with a hand-clapping show tune. But through it all, Holliday says she’s still most at home whenever she’s performing.
"I am a singer," she said, "and I never want to stop singing." ••
For times and ticket information, call the Mann at 215-893-1999.