Vesta Williams
Vesta Williams
Mary Vesta Williamswas an American singer–songwriter, who performed across genres such as pop, jazz, adult contemporary and R&B. Originally credited as Vesta Williams, she was sometimes simply billed as Vesta beginning in the 1990s. She was known for her four–octave vocal range. She once sang The Star Spangled Banner for the Los Angeles Lakers game opener using all four of those octaves. Although Williams never had any albums certified gold nor any Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionR&B Singer
Date of Birth1 December 1957
CountryUnited States of America
A lot of people have called me the black Bette Midler, and I regard that as a compliment.
According to my grandmother, I started singing as soon as I began talking. I always wanted to be an entertainer. I knew that from the start.
When I lost my record deal, and my phone wasn't ringing, I realized that I had to reassess who Vesta was and figure out what was going wrong. I knew it wasn't my singing ability. So it had to be that I was expendable because I didn't have the right look.
Don't you dare print my first name. That would make me sound like a real country girl.
I guess I was always a ham, and I was anxious to try doing different things. I started doing impressions to make friends at school. I would do them during recess. Maybe some of the kids thought I was being weird, but everyone seemed to have a good time.
I've always felt that to deliver a song successfully, you have to be an actress. A good actress becomes the part, just as a good singer becomes the song.