singer / songwriter / keyboardist / musician / producer / actress
Sheléa - "spirit"
Mentored by and having toured with the late great Quincy Jones while earning non-stop hosannas from icons like Stevie Wonder, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliot, Queen Latifah and David Foster, multi-talented vocal phenomenon and Grammy nominee Sheléa (pronounced Shuh-lay-uh) has developed her stellar rep as the industry’s “go to” performer paying homage to the legends who inspired her own beautiful personal artistry. Marking the latest dynamic chapter in her emergence as an impactful singer/songwriter, her new collection Spirit – which she playfully calls “my retro-soul happy Amy Winehouse album” – is the latest manifestation of her innate, long-cherished ability to draw on the emotional power of a song to connect the hearts and souls of multiple generations.
Effortlessly and intuitively blending traditional pop, jazz and R&B with rousing touches of her background growing up in church in Bakersfield, CA, Sheléa’s soaring voice has taken her to Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, The Vatican (for the 2024 Concert For Jubilee) and the White House twice, where she honored Burt Bacharach and Hal David by singing the Dionne Warwick classic “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and later returned for a duet of “Night Time is the Right Time” with Anthony Hamilton for the Smithsonian Salutes Ray Charles event in the presence of President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama. Expanding her repertoire further, Sheléa made her debut as an actress playing Dorinda Clark in the 2020 Lifetime biopic The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel, which drew 2.7M viewers (the network’s highest rated TV film of the year) and earned both Critic’s Choice and NAACP Image Award nominations.
Traveling internationally as a featured vocalist in An Intimate Evening with David Foster, Sheléa worked her magic on classics made famous by Natalie Cole (“Unforgettable”), Chaka Khan (“Through the Fire”), Toni Braxton (“Unbreak My Heart”) and, in duet with Pia Toscano, assuming the Barbra Streisand role on “Tell Him.” She then brought the house down with her Whitney Houston Bodyguard medley. Years earlier, when the singer appeared as a special guest at the Grammy Museum with Whitney’s producer Narada Michael Walden, fans came up to Sheléa afterward and said they adored the then-recently departed) Whitney, and now they loved her. She says, “They told me they felt that I captured her spirit, but they felt my heart.”
That’s exactly the kind of intuitive spiritual connection Sheléa has brought to Aretha!, the globally celebrated show she and maestro Jules Buckley created to pay tribute to the Queen of Soul – and which became a major part of the inspiration behind the writing and recording of Spirit. Featuring deep cuts from throughout Ms. Franklin’s career (including early jazz cuts) in addition to her well- known classic Atlantic and Arista hits, the show debuted at the Royal Albert Hall in the summer of 2022 – and Sheléa and Buckley soon began touring it in throughout Europe. In addition to an encore performance at Royal Albert Hall in December 2024, Sheléa recently recorded Aretha! for her 10th PBS Special, with music conducted by the Emmy Award winning Rickey Minor, at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA.
To Sheléa, the debut of Aretha! On PBS coinciding with the time frame of the release of Spirit is perfect synchronicity. “The snowball effect has been in full force from the time Jules and I met, conceived and performed the Aretha show to when the idea for a new album came to me and the songwriting and production process began,” she says. “When I saw how audiences were responding to songs like ‘Chain of Fools’ decades after Aretha recorded them, it hit me that there is a vacuum these days in the musical culture for this kind of pure soulful joy. That’s what Spirit the album is, joyful and introspective. I wanted to create an album that gets people grooving and is reminiscent of the soulfulness of the past while also feeling very today and contemporary. I feel like nobody else is doing that right now – and that the lane is wide open for me to create the kind of album Aretha would be doing in 2025 were she still with us.”
“I knew the kind of album I wanted to make, and vibing and collaborating with Davy really helped cement my vision,” says Sheléa, whose previous discography includes the albums Love Fell on Me (2013), You (2015), the Marilyn and Alan Bergman tribute Pretty World (2019) and a flurry of singles throughout the early 2020s. “Everything happened so easily and organically. As we continued to work on tracks, building from a few potential singles to a full album, I felt like we weren’t just chasing hits, but making music that just felt good. My goal was to create a body of work I can sing over and over, with songs that felt as close and heartfelt to me as the classics of others I’ve performed for years. The eight tracks on the album truly came from my heart and spirit, and perfectly match what I envisioned. Everything I bring has a soul to it, just like Aretha had.”
In the Fall of 2024, Sheléa sang Spirit’s first lead single, the hopeful vocal, guitar and strings driven ballad “Something’s Coming,” at a Kamala Harris fundraiser at the invitation of the Vice President’s sister Maya. She later performed it as a special guest on Stevie Wonder’s “Sing Your Song!” tour, to a collective audience totaling over 100,000. Now that we’re in 2025, Sheléa says, “We need this song now more than ever. Hope is on the horizon, and we have to unify to move forward.”
While the Sheléa-Nathan collabs began with the romantic power ballad “I Love You” (“our Lionel Richie song,” she muses) and many of the songs reflect the singer’s current status of being “blissfully in love,” Spirit is a multi-faceted journey infused with intense vocal passion, a multitude of tempos (including the bluesy, swinging “headbob” of “Never Give Up” and “Our Way,” a jaunty ode to the playful Motown-Supremes excitement) and even a bit of sassy attitude on the buoyant, choir-filled “I Don’t Care,” in which Sheléa lists all the important things she cares about – and the things from a past relationship that she doesn’t. Other gems on Spirit include dreamy, blues-inflected light funk romp “Good To Me”; the infectious, high energy, New Orleans stomp groove fired title track, about feeling one’s significant other with her even when she’s away on the road; and the sensual, soaring closer “Time Machine,” a classic R&B styled song about regret after a break-up.
“Growing up in a home where we listened exclusively to gospel music, I have beautiful memories of being a toddler harmonizing with my mom and sitting at a wooden piano, writing little songs,” says Sheléa. “I’ve always said I didn’t choose music – it’s a divine thing and God chose me to be a vessel of musicality. No matter what I’ve been through in my life, I’ve never lost my childlike love of singing and creating it. With Spirit, I am connecting with the joy I am experiencing now, sharing a body of work that will one day help me remember this amazing era in my life. I’m so excited to start touring the album and inviting fans to become an integral part of my story.”
Her 2013 debut album, Love Fell On Me, featured the self-penned title track from the film Jumping the Broom and the Billboard-charting single “I’ll Never Let You Go,” which peaked at #22 on the R&B charts. But it was her heartfelt tribute to Whitney Houston—a 10-song, self-arranged medley performed at the keyboard—that launched her into viral stardom and revealed to the world an artist of rare depth, control, and reverence.
Sheléa’s brilliance has drawn the admiration of music’s elite. She has worked alongside a who’s who of industry legends, including Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, David Foster, Sergio Mendes, Narada Michael Walden, Rickey Minor, and Dave Koz. Her collaborations and performances reflect not only technical mastery but emotional richness and authenticity that resonates across generations.
Called “one of the greatest artists of her generation” by the iconic Quincy Jones, Sheléa is more than a vocalist—she is a storyteller, arranger, producer, and pianist whose artistry continues to evolve and inspire. Whether commanding the stage of a world-renowned venue or delivering an intimate ballad, she radiates timeless soul, fearless talent, and a voice that truly knows no bounds.
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