Faith Evans is one of the most iconic voices in music. During the 2018 Grammy weekend, she was one of four panelists a part of BMI’s annual “How I Wrote That Song” panel. Evans was joined by some other superstars including RedOne, Mark Batson and Tory Lanez.
Faith’s humor is so unique that it brought such an interesting life to the panel. When discussing her collaboration with Whitney Houston and Kelly Price on “Heartbreak Hotel” – Faith admits that she was nervous, despite Whitney being her friend. She hilariously recounted how Whitney kept telling her to “Pick it up Faith, pick it up, pick it up!” because Faith was singing/recording “behind the beat”. Every-time they would start recording, Whitney would just want Faith to pick it up and be singing on the beat.
Faith also said that Whitney reached out to her and Kelly Price to be on the record and she’s super grateful for that belief.
Before the panel, Faith spoke to The Knockturnal and a group of reporters about her success and how she first started in the industry.
The Knockturnal: You kind of worked with everyone that’s great. What do you attribute to your success over time?
Faith: Wow. I feel like I never came into this business knowing I wanted to be an artist. I was just a singer and wanted to make money with my gift. I think just humility number one and maybe… I have some talent (laughs)
The Knockturnal: It’s quite a big time for women at the moment. Do you feel empowered, especially with the #MeToo campaign?
Faith: I mean I felt empowered before the #MeToo campaign. I’m very much comfortable in my skin and proud of whatever it is that I represent to the people, that it is a positive thing. That’s really my goal. Of course I am a singer/songwriter but I mean I think the person that I am, is really what connects me with people.
The Knockturnal: When did you get your first major placement?
Faith: When I first met Puff, he was working on Usher’s first album and I came in to sing a little line. I wasn’t there for that, but they found out somebody there could sing. They wanted somebody that could sing one line and I went in, I arranged it and put all these harmonies. When I came out, he asked me if I wanted to sign to his label, like that; for real. So, it would be something that was on Usher’s first album.
