And she's using her social media platforms to call on followers to vote. While trying to rebuild her career, Michele is mentoring other black women and focusing on her mental health.
I want people to know that it's okay to expect more from me." "While I felt like people took so much away from me in those two years, I'm more grateful for finally having time to look at the last 12" years, since she released her first album, Michele said. Her music, she acknowledges, can't exist in a cultural vacuum. In the age of social media and partisan politics, it's impossible to separate the artist from the person. Amid the fallout, she told her critics that she is "no political genius," but she now recognizes that's irrelevant. Now, Michele is back on stage with a new perspective. The singer who wrote "Strong Black Woman" wondered if she should just stop singing forever. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and endured a miscarriage that she publicly attributed to stress from death threats and a hydrant of criticism. The 36-year-old lost an album distribution deal and radio stations stopped playing her songs. Instead, it sent her life into a tail spin. She believed the performance would be an opportunity to "be a bridge" in a fractured nation. She accepted the gig against the advice of her fans, former collaborators and even her husband. It has been two years since Michele made what many predicted would be a career-ending decision - singing at one of President Trump's inaugural balls. The last time she sang at the Keswick, her manager and husband, Doug Ellison, reminisced, nearly all 1,500 seats were filled.īut a few days after Christmas, the die-hard fans clotted near the stage to hear Michele sing were surrounded by a phalanx of empty seats. The Keswick theater in this suburb of Philadelphia sits in a region that is the mecca of the neo-soul music that earned Michele a dozen years of fame, a record deal at 23 and a career-validating Grammy. The proceeds support the advancement of the creative arts…a place that is being stripped, in order to reduce ‘government spending’.Chrisette Michele held hands with her band members during a final prayer, posed for a pre-show Instagram photo and stepped out into what remains of a career battered by a five-minute-18-second association with Donald Trump. Writing,”I had an amazing time lifting up the name of Jesus last night with my friend #LoveOnly #LightOnly #HopeOnly,” she wrote, “Thank you to for the collaborative, CFDA and Basquiat piece I wore to the ball. The singer has also taken to Instagram in her continued efforts to clarify her reason for performing at Trump’s inauguration. Monday morning, Michele dropped “No Political Genius,” a spoken word track from a forthcoming project called Still American. The track is meant to provide hope and spark discussion, however, lyrics include, “I am the black song that Spike Lee won’t sing” and “Hip hop for Jay Z, now you say You Lost One / R&B for Def Jam, Rich Hipster for Brooklyn / But Spike won’t pay me, A Crook from Crooklyn” as the singer throws shots and continues to defend her inauguration performance throughout the poem.
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