The music of Oleta Adams defies categorization. Even her four GRAMMY nominations cut across multiple genres—showcasing her artistic versatility and inherent individuality.

Although "Get Here" is her biggest popular hit in the United States, she has developed a substantial following in Europe, where eleven of her songs charted on the UK Singles Chart. And over the past two decades, Oleta Adams has amassed an international following, whose dedication draws strength and fixation from her warm vocals and passionate spirit.

Whether singing jazz, Gospel or R&B, Oleta Adams has the power to connect with her fans through the raw emotion underlying her personal—yet universal—lyrics. Her latest album, Let's Stay Here stands as the eighth of her long, illustrious career.

Upon the release of Let's Stay Here, Oleta Adams managed to squeeze some time out of her busy schedule and settle down for an interview with Clayton Perry — reflecting on her European success, marketing challenges, and "Picture You the Way that I Do."

Over the course of your career, your musical catalog has spanned multiple genres. What similarities do you find in a song, whether it's Gospel, pop or R&B? 

Coming from being raised singing Gospel music in my dad's church, all the way to being trained classically as a lyric soprano, and then spending so many years in clubs and singing whatever the latest hits are as well as some Broadway shows stuff and whatever it is – it just makes you very versatile. You learn from practice how to get the most out of each one of those different genres of music. But the thing that ties it all together for me are the lyrics. The lyrics are the most important part of expressing yourself in song as far as I'm concerned. Some people look for an opportunity to show off their musical prowess by singing the highest note or the most notes. For me, it is how to get the most out of the words and to make it an expression that every person and hopefully as many people as possible can relate to what I'm saying.

As an artist with fans of every stripe, what kind of struggle has it been for you in terms of marketing yourself?

It's not a struggle for me now, but it was before I got the break. Fortunately, I was found by a group called Tears for Fears and I made my entry onto the scene in the States by way of Great Britain. When I got signed to Polygram Fontana, the A&R person, Dave Bates, was introduced to my music by Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears. When Roland spoke about my performance in "Seeds of Love," he said: "You know, she's going to get a lot of recording offers once this record comes out. You'd be smart to be the person to sign her." And Dave was interested but his initial response was: "If I sign her, how do we market her?" Roland said, "Just let her sing." That's been my motto all along and that's pretty much what had happened. I kind of defied the labels because I've been on so many different charts. I've been on the adult contemporary chart, the pop chart, the Gospel chart, the jazz chart – you name it. I have four GRAMMY nominations but they're all on different categories. My work has been with so many different kinds of genres of music. That makes it fun for me because it's kind of like eating food. You have favorite foods. Mine – I love pancakes. I love pancakes but I wouldn't want to eat it every day. That's kind of the way I look at this. Fortunately, because I got on the scene the way I did, the public who listens to me, they're like, "Okay, here's Oleta Adams. That is the genre." It's Oleta Adams. You can feed just about any kind of song to your public when you're performing live and when you're recording if you serve it to them in the right way. I don't really worry too much about the marketing thing. I let somebody else worry about that. At this point in my life, I don't worry about it. I just sing. 

Article Author: Clayton Perry

Clayton Perry's mission parallels that of John Hope Franklin, Marcus Garvey and Carter G. Woodson. As the founder of the NUBIANO Project, Perry facilitates the design of projects that give voice to the Black diaspora, empower the Black community, …

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