Shanice: Child Star Returns As An Adult—And As A Star - Brief Article

Ebony, Oct, 1999 by Kelly Starling

IF you hear a Shanice Wilson song and get a feeling of deja vu, it's for good reason. Hers is a voice you've heard many times before. At age 9, she scatted with Ella Fitzgerald. At 11, she signed her first record deal. At 14, she released her first album. At 18, she sparkled with her second album, the gold-certified Inner Child.

Before Brandy or Monica became teen queens, Shanice, the child star, dazzled crowds with a "Silent Prayer" duet with Johnny Gill and "I Love Your Smile," a hit single which earned her a Grammy nomination.

After creating so much excitement, the former Star Search grand champion seemed to disappear. But she just stepped behind the scenes to hone her style. Over the years, you may have heard her powerful soprano on songs with Kenny Loggins and on the Pocahontas soundtrack with Jon Secada. Or maybe you hummed along to "I Love You," the song she co-wrote for Chante Moore and Keith Washington.

Others might have caught her breakthrough performance as "Eponine" in the hit Broadway musical Les Miserables. But now at age 26, Shanice has returned with a new album and a new maturity.

She's excited about the possibilities of her comeback.

"This all feels new to me, although I signed my first deal at 11," says Shanice of her fourth album. "First, I was nervous about coming out, wondering how people would accept me after so many years. But I still have my loyal fans. I'm so thankful because many people still remember me."

Her LaFace debut album, Shanice, released last fall, already has people nodding their heads and singing along. The single, "When I Close My Eyes," recently made music headlines when it scored the biggest one-week leap in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She co-wrote five of the album's songs.

"Lyrically, this album is talking about things in my life," says Shanice. "I didn't want an album full of depressing love songs about `I can't live or eat if he doesn't come back.' I wanted strong lyrics that let people know if you're in a bad relationship, you can move on. I want women to know we need to start loving ourselves. I think you can hear that in my music."

Shanice knows what she's talking about. The young woman has grown up a lot in her time away from the spotlight, experiencing heartache of her own and moving away from home. Her music, filled with a ripe sweetness, reflects that growth.

"This new album is more mature because I'm maturing as a person," says Shanice. "It's important for us to love ourselves before we look for love."

Shanice has always been a little grown for her age. While some children begin their attempts at speech with gurgles, the first words of the Pittsburgh-born songstress were lyrics. At 7 months old, she cooed from her crib "Tell Me Something Good" by Chaka Khan. "I couldn't walk or talk, but I was singing," says the crooner. "I wouldn't go to sleep, so my mom started singing to me. And I sang back."

The baby got her talent honestly. Her mother, Crystal, sang backup for Luther Vandross and Jennifer Holliday. Her father, Carl Black, is a guitar player. Shanice says she always wanted to be a singer, counting among her influences The Emotions, Minnie Riperton, StevieWonder and the Clark Sisters.

She got her chance when her mother and Aunt Penni moved her from the industrial town of McKees Rocks, Pa., to Los Angeles, Calif. At 9 years old, Shanice landed a spot scatting in a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial with legendary crooner Ella Fitzgerald. Two years later, her performance on Star Search at age 11 won her the $5,000 grand prize and the attention of music executives. A part in an L.A. musical, Get Happy, earned her a recording contract with A&M Records before she reached her teens.

Her first album, Discovery, had two No. 1 hits "(Baby Tell Me) Can You Dance?" and "No 1/2 Steppin." She later signed with Motown and began to find her voice, co-writing with Narada Michael Walden the warm-and-fuzzy tune "I Love Your Smile," which made her a teen star.

She also tried her hand at acting. She was cast as "Eponine"--a lead role usually played by White actresses--in Les Miserables.

"Les Miserables was a great experience. It was a challenge," she says. "I had to sing almost like opera. It was a difficult way of singing, and at live shows, anything can happen. You can slip and fall and you have to keep going."

After Broadway, Shanice began planning her return to the charts. The first major step in that direction was signing with LaFace Records and creating her new album.

"It's been amazing," Shanice says. "Everything I submitted as a writer was accepted--tunes I wrote with London Jones, Montell Jordan, Jamey Jazz and Nitro ... When people hear my album, they're getting me, they're getting my personality, who I am."

Shanice has come full circle, using lessons from her past to color her music and her decisions in life and love.

"I've learned you cannot trust everybody," she says. "That's why I had my mother and my aunt. The record company will try to tell you how your image should be. Back in the day, I used to listen to everyone else when I had my own ideas. Now, I've learned to speak up for myself."