Judith Hill | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Judith Glory Hill |
Born | [1] [2] Los Angeles, California | May 6, 1984
Genres | Pop, soul, Contemporary R&B, neo-soul, funk, jazz |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician, composer |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, piano, guitar, bass |
Years active | 2007–present |
Labels | Sony Music NPG |
Website | judithhill |
Judith Glory Hill is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She has provided backing vocals for such artists as Michael Jackson, Prince, and Josh Groban. In 2009, Hill was chosen as Jackson's duet partner for the song "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" during his This Is It rehearsals. After Jackson's death in 2009, she, along with the rest of the This Is It cast members, performed at Jackson's memorial service and attracted global attention when she sang the lead on the song "Heal the World". Hill's rise to fame is recounted in 20 Feet from Stardom , a documentary film that tells the untold story of the backup singers behind some of the "greatest musical legends of the 21st century". She is also a featured artist on the film's soundtrack. She won the Grammy Award for Best Music Film for her performance in this film.
A number of Hill's original ballads, including "Desperation" were featured in the 2012 Spike Lee film Red Hook Summer . In March 2013, Hill became a contestant during the fourth season of The Voice . Hill opened for Josh Groban during the third leg of his All That Echoes World Tour (North America) in Fall 2013. She also performed two duets with him in his set for "The Prayer" and "Remember When It Rained", the latter of which was released as a single. She also toured with John Legend on the UK leg of his #AllOfMe tour in the Fall of 2014.
Her debut album Back in Time , recorded at Paisley Park with Prince as co-producer, was officially released as a free download [3] on Judith Hill's WeTransfer account on March 23 and made available until March 25, 2015, via a Livenation email with a note from Prince. [4]
Hill's mother Michiko Hill (née Yoshimura) [1] is a pianist from Tokyo who met Hill's father Robert Lee "Pee Wee" Hill in a funk group in the 1970s. Judith's mother is Japanese and her father is African-American. She can speak and sing in both English and Japanese [5] and is also fluent in French and Spanish. Hill is a 2002 YoungArts alumnus. [6]
After a degree in music composition from Biola University, Hill went to France in 2007 to perform with the French singer Michel Polnareff. She began a career as a singer-songwriter when she returned to the United States.
According to Tom Meek of LA Weekly , Hill's voice is distinctive, soulful and has an earthy quality that makes it unique. She moves easily from R&B to funk to hip-hop to jazz to gospel. [7]
Hill is credited for singing backing vocals and/or choir for Gregg Allman ( Low Country Blues ); Anastacia ( Freak of Nature ); Patrizio Buanne ( Patrizio ); Andraé Crouch (The Journey); Harold Faltermeyer (Copout); Josh Groban ( All That Echoes ); Taylor Hicks ( Taylor Hicks ); Carole King ( A Holiday Carole ); Evelyn "Champagne" King (Open Book); Mike Oldfield ( Man on the Rocks ); Barry Manilow ( 15 Minutes ); Dave Stewart (The Ringmaster General and The Blackbird Diaries); Rod Stewart ( Soulbook ); Robbie Williams ( Intensive Care ); Incubus ( Trust Fall (Side A) , song "Dance Like You're Dumb").
She is a featured vocalist for albums such as Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole by George Benson, I'll Take Romance by Steve Tyrell, The Last Ai by Ai and That's Life by Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. She has also provided vocals for soundtracks such as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax: Original Songs from the Motion Picture and Happy Feet Two (Soundtrack) .
A number of Hill's original ballads, including "Desperation" produced by Brian West, were featured in the 2012 Spike Lee film Red Hook Summer which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. About Hill, Lee said to Rolling Stone : "She's a phenomenal talent. She can sing with the best of them." [8]
Hill signed a record deal with Sony Music in 2013. [9]
On February 9, 2014, Hill appeared as a back-up singer in the CBS show The Beatles: A Night That Changed America. [10]
Hill was the featured singer on Gerard Way's original song titled "Here Comes the End", released July 8, 2020 and which appears on the second season of The Umbrella Academy. [11]
Hill was a featured vocalist on Eric Clapton's single "How Could We Know", released on July 14, 2023. Other featured guests on the song are Simon Climie on vocals and Daniel Santiago on acoustic guitar. [12] [13] November 17, 2023 in Atlantic City, she performed lead vocals for Chicago and Friends.
On June 21, 2024, in Minneapolis, The Revolution welcomed Hill as a special guest vocalist when they reunited to celebrate 40 Years of Prince's album Purple Rain. Joe Lynch of Billboard stated that when she took lead on the yearning, lusty vocal showcase "The Beautiful Ones", "Hill offered up effortlessly silky runs and skyscraping, soulful peaks, absolutely dominating a song that's near impossible to cover." [14]
Judith Hill's debut solo album, Back In Time released in 2015. The 11-track album was written by Hill and produced by Prince. Livenation.com offered it as a free download to subscribers and received 50,000 downloads on the first day. [15]
2021's Baby, I'm Hollywood! garnered acclaim from SPIN. [16] That year, Hill also penned a guest essay for Atwood Magazine about the culture of music. [17]
On September 15, 2023, Hill released "Runaway Train," the first single from her studio album Letters from a Black Widow, which released April 26, 2024.
In 2009, Hill was selected as Michael Jackson's duet partner for the This Is It concerts; she practiced for months with Jackson up until his death on June 25, 2009. [18]
Michael Jackson's death caused the concerts to be cancelled. Along with the rest of the This Is It cast members, Hill performed at Jackson's memorial service at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles on July 7, 2009. She attracted global attention when she sang the lead on the song "Heal the World" which was one of the climactic moments of the service. [19]
Hill also released a tribute to Jackson, "I Will Always Be Missing You", named after her duet with Jackson "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" in the to-be This Is It concert. It was given as a free download from her website starting late 2009, and was released on iTunes on January 26, 2010 (the same day as the This Is It DVD release) — with all proceeds going to Childhelp US.
Hill auditioned for the fourth season of The Voice . In the first episode of the season broadcast on March 25, 2013, she sang "What a Girl Wants" by Christina Aguilera with all four judges, Adam Levine, Shakira, Usher and Blake Shelton pressing their "I Want You" button and turning their chairs. After a hard decision, she chose to join Team Adam. "She's going to be a Grammy-winning superstar, and she's on my team", Levine stated.
For the battle rounds, Hill faced off with Karina Iglesias, singing "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", which along with Amanda Brown and Trevin Hunte's "Vision of Love" and also Jesse Campbell and Anthony Evan's "If I Ain't Got You", was considered one of the best battles in Voice history. Levine chose her to move on from his team, thus entering the Knockout Rounds. In the Knockout Rounds, Hill was paired against Orlando Dixon and won. Therefore, she entered the top 16, the start of the live shows. She was considered a frontrunner in the competition; however, after her Top 8 performance, she was eliminated on May 28, 2013. She and her teammate Sarah Simmons' eliminations at the Top 8 show was considered one of the most shocking of the season. Said Katy Kroll of Rolling Stone: "It's a sad loss for the show, as Judith had the type of vocal chops and stage presence that should really be rewarded by such a competition." [20]
Performances on The Voice:
Stage | Song | Original Artist | Date | Order | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Blind Audition | "What a Girl Wants" | Christina Aguilera | March 25, 2013 | 1.14 | All four chairs turned Joined Team Adam |
Battle Rounds | "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (vs. Karina Iglesias) | James Brown | April 15, 2013 | 7.6 | Saved by Coach |
Knockout Rounds | "Always on My Mind" (vs. Orlando Dixon) | Brenda Lee | April 29, 2013 | 11.5 | Saved by Coach |
Live Playoffs | "Feeling Good" | Nina Simone | May 6, 2013 | 14.8 | Saved by Public Vote |
Live Top 12 | "You've Got a Friend" | James Taylor | May 13, 2013 | 17.9 | Saved by Public Vote |
Live Top 10 | "The Way You Make Me Feel" | Michael Jackson | May 20, 2013 | 20.2 | Saved by Public Vote |
Live Top 8 | "#thatPOWER" | will.i.am feat. Justin Bieber | May 27, 2013 | 22.1 | Eliminated |
Hill and several backup singers are featured in the documentary film 20 Feet from Stardom , which debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival [21] and opened in US theaters on June 14, 2013. The movie won the 2014 Oscar & Critics Choice Award for documentary feature and Hill won a Black Reel Award for Outstanding Original Song for "Desperation". 20 Feet from Stardom also won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Music Film, with the award being presented to the featured artists as well as the production crew. [22]
Hill sings backing vocals on three of Josh Groban's songs for the album All That Echoes and was the opening act during the third leg of his All That Echoes World Tour (North America) in Fall 2013. She also performed two duets with him in his set for "The Prayer" and "Remember When It Rained", [9] [23] the latter of which was released as a single. She appears in Groban's official video for his song "Brave".
Hill was the opening act for John Legend on his #AllOfMe Tour in the UK in the autumn of 2014.
Hill is the featured vocalist on her composition "Party Rockers" which appears on Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band's album Life in the Bubble . The song was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals. [22]
On March 22, 2015, Prince invited representatives from several Minnesota media outlets to preview Hill's debut album at Paisley Park. Six selections were played from Back in Time , which Hill recorded in two or three weeks at Paisley Park with Prince as producer. "It's the fastest album I've ever made," he said. Surprisingly, Prince did not discover Hill on The Voice or in the Michael Jackson movie This Is It, where she was featured as a backup singer in rehearsal for his upcoming tour. He learned about her when he saw a video clip of her being interviewed on a Revolt TV show and she mentioned that she would like to work with Prince. [2] He went on to produce her debut album, Back In Time (2015).
Year | Film | Role |
---|---|---|
2009 | Michael Jackson's This Is It | Herself |
2013 | 20 Feet from Stardom | Herself |
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and actress. She is noted for her optimistic and idealistic subject matter, and incorporation of genres including rock, pop, country, folk, and blues. She has released twelve studio albums, five compilations, and three live albums, and contributed to several film soundtracks. Her most popular songs include "All I Wanna Do" (1994), "Strong Enough" (1994), "If It Makes You Happy" (1996), "Everyday Is a Winding Road" (1996), "My Favorite Mistake" (1998), "Picture", and "Soak Up the Sun" (2002).
Audrey Faith McGraw, known professionally as Faith Hill, is an American country singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. She is one of the most successful country music artists of all time, having sold almost 50 million albums worldwide.
Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, as of 2023, had sold more than 50 million records worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000s decade. She has won nine Grammy Awards and was ranked 60th on Billboard magazine's artists of the 2000s decade chart.
Yvette Marie Stevens, better known by her stage name Chaka Khan, is an American singer. Known as the "Queen of Funk", her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. With the band she recorded the notable hits "Tell Me Something Good", "Sweet Thing", "Do You Love What You Feel" and the platinum-certified "Ain't Nobody". Her debut solo album featured the number-one R&B hit "I'm Every Woman". Khan scored another R&B charts hit with "What Cha' Gonna Do for Me" before becoming the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with her 1984 cover of Prince's "I Feel for You". More of Khan's hits include "Through the Fire" and a 1986 collaboration with Steve Winwood that produced a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, "Higher Love".
Joshua Winslow Groban is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. His first four solo albums have been certified multi-platinum, and he was charted in 2007 as the number-one best selling artist in the United States, with over 22.3 million records. As of 2022, he had sold over 25 million records worldwide.
David Walter Foster is a Canadian record producer, film composer, and music executive. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. Foster's career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s before focusing largely on composing and production. Often in tandem with songwriter Diane Warren, Foster has contributed to material for prominent music industry artists in various genres since then, and is credited with production on over 40 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100. He has also chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016.
Kenneth Brian Edmonds, better known by his stage name Babyface, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has written and produced over 26 number-one R&B hits throughout his career and has won 13 Grammy Awards. He was ranked number 20 on NME's 50 of The Greatest Producers Ever list.
Sheena Shirley Easton is a Scottish singer and actress who achieved recognition in an episode of the reality television series The Big Time: Pop Singer, which recorded her attempts to gain a record deal and her eventual signing with the EMI label. Her first two singles, "Modern Girl" and "9 to 5", both entered the top ten of the UK singles chart simultaneously. She became one of the most successful British female recording artists of the 1980s.
Kim Carnes is an American singer and songwriter born and raised in Los Angeles. A veteran writer of many of her own hits, as well as those for numerous other artists, she began her career in 1966 as a member of folk group The New Christy Minstrels, before embarking on a solo career as a songwriter and performer in the early 1970s, playing in local clubs. She also worked for several years as a session background singer with the famed Waters Sisters, Maxine Waters Willard and Julia Waters Tillman, who were later featured in the acclaimed 2013 documentary, 20 Feet from Stardom). In 1971, after she signed her first publishing deal with Jimmy Bowen, Carnes released her debut album Rest on Me. Released in 1975, Carnes' self-titled second album primarily contained self-penned songs, including her first charting single "You're a Part of Me," which reached No. 35 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. In the following year, Carnes released Sailin', produced by the legendary Jerry Wexler, which featured "Love Comes from Unexpected Places." The song won the American Song Festival and the award for Best Composition at the Tokyo Song Festival in 1976.
Brad Douglas Paisley is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His first success came in 1997 as the writer of David Kersh's "Another You". After this, he signed with Arista Nashville in 1998 and released his debut album Who Needs Pictures in 1999. This was the first of twelve studio albums he would release for the label before its closure in 2023, after which he transferred to EMI Nashville. His most commercially successful albums are Mud on the Tires (2003) and Time Well Wasted (2005), both certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Iris Luella DeMent is an American singer-songwriter and musician. DeMent's musical style includes elements of folk, country and gospel. She has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice.
Patti Austin is an American Grammy Award-winning R&B, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter best known for "Baby, Come to Me", her 1982 duet with James Ingram, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 after its re-release that same year.
"She's Out of My Life" is a song written by American songwriter Tom Bahler and performed by American singer Michael Jackson. The song was released April 1, 1980 as the fourth single from Jackson's 1979 album Off the Wall. In 2004, the song appeared in The Ultimate Collection. It peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the first time any solo artist had ever achieved four Top 10 hits from one album. In America, it earned a million-selling Platinum certification.
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family's band The Staple Singers, of which she is the last surviving member. During her time in the group, she recorded the hit singles "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again". In 1969, Staples released her self-titled debut solo album.
"The Prayer" is a song performed by Canadian singer Celine Dion and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. It was written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager, Tony Renis and Alberto Testa.
Sara Beth Bareilles is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She has sold over three million albums and over 15 million singles in the United States. Bareilles has earned various accolades, including two Grammy Awards, as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards. In 2012, VH1 named her one of the Top 100 Greatest Women in Music.
Merry Clayton is an American soul and gospel singer. She contributed vocals to numerous tracks and worked with many major recording artists for decades, including a duet with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter". Clayton is prominently featured in 20 Feet from Stardom, the Oscar-winning documentary about background singers and their contributions to the music industry.
Humberto Gatica is a Chilean-born American recording engineer, mixing engineer and record producer, best known for his work with Celine Dion, Chicago, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Cher and Michael Bublé. Gatica's international collaborations include producing artists singing in over six languages.
Kesha is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, and actress. She has appeared in 35 music videos, 8 of them being guest appearances. She has appeared in a total of 7 films. She has also appeared in multiple television shows such as Nashville, RuPaul's Drag Race, Jane the Virgin, Victorious, and more.
Kristle Murden, also known as Kristle Edwards, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, music producer, author and ordained minister. Murden is the soloist on the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King. She made her professional debut in 1979 singing the duet "I'll Be Thinking of You" with Andraé Crouch, for which Stevie Wonder played harmonica. She signed as a solo artist with Light Records, also in 1979. She was nominated for two Grammy awards: her solo album I Can't Let Go was nominated in 1980, and in 1984, she was nominated for her solo vocal performance for "Jesus Come Lay Your Head on Me" from Andraé Crouch's No Time to Lose album. In 1981 she was nominated for a Dove Award for her I Can't Let Go album in the category of Best Soul Black Gospel album.