![\"Oleta-Adams-Turquoise\"](\"http:\/\/theduanewells.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Oleta-Adams-Turquoise.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not cool. I\u2019m just honest.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n — Oleta Adams<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are a handful of singers who stride into the limelight and captivate audiences not with a catchy hook, a dizzying flurry of choreography or a parade of outlandish interviews and costumes. They instead stand on unadorned stages, without artifice or ego, enrapturing music lovers with the sheer breadth of their talent alone. Oleta Adams is one such singer.<\/p>\n Since her solo career took flight in 1990 with the platinum-selling global hit \u201cGet Here\u201d, Adams has enjoyed a burning under, somewhat underappreciated, degree of fame, buttressed by diehard music fans around the world. Enjoyed<\/em> is the operative term here with respect to Adams\u2019 career because the singer\u2019s star has largely continued to shine for more than three decades on her own terms, without ever resorting to any of the music industry\u2019s stereotypical, sparkle-inducing shenanigans.<\/p>\n In concert, Adams and Adams alone commands the stage where her rich contralto acts like a beacon summoning up every imaginable emotion from the greatest joy to the most heartbreaking sadness, irrespective of the genre of music to which it is applied. She is, like Nina Simone before her, a master interpreter of music and one can\u2019t help but wonder if like Simone, the true depth of her talent will have to wait decades to earn its due.<\/p>\n Tonight, the indomitable Ms. Adams will take the stage for the first of two shows at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas before continuing on with a string of tour dates in venues across the globe from New York and Chicago to Amsterdam and Belgrade. I sat down for a conversation with the powerhouse singer a few months back after a performance in Los Angeles. In her mellifluous speaking voice, which is, for the record, almost as entrancing as her singing voice, the petite diva talked frankly about remaining true to her gift, the travails of the music business, the challenge her own songs can sometimes present and singing her next chapter.<\/p>\n How do you account for such longevity in such a fickle business?<\/strong><\/p>\n OA:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think not doing trendy music is one of the things. I\u2019m not willing to just keep working for someone else\u2019s ideal. I actually have a purpose. I really have to have something to say or else I don\u2019t want to do [the music].<\/p>\n [I think] the sound of my voice is also unique. It\u2019s well oiled. It soothes people and makes them feel as if it is a healing balm. And I try to sing songs that have lasting meaning and songs that people can become invested in and discover for themselves. It\u2019s more endearing that way.<\/p>\n It would be an understatement to say that you have a knack for what might be called the \u201canthemic\u201d. While some artists create passing moments, you create lasting moments. Do you have a musical secret sauce so to speak?<\/strong><\/p>\n OA:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wow. It\u2019s probably the way that I was mentored and trained. Because that was the most important thing \u2013 emotion. To give people something to think about and to latch onto. Something to build a little fire in their hearts, one way or another.<\/p>\n I wish you could have been standing beside me when I stepped off the stage to hear all the different stories. There are always stories. As an artist [and] as a composer my job is to identify with the audience and to say for them what they\u2019re feeling \u2013 to articulate it \u2013 and that\u2019s basically what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always said that when people are feeling bad, they don\u2019t want to feel better right away. They want to hear someone say \u2018I understand what you\u2019re feeling\u2019, and then they can get on with the healing. That\u2019s what these songs do.<\/p>\n Speaking of healing, you\u2019ve released eight\u00a0albums but your first album, Circle of One<\/em>, co-produced by Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears, was a musical landmark that spawned quite a bit of healing during and after the Gulf War in large part due to your global hit \u201cGet Here\u201d. However, I understand that behind-the-scenes your second album was more challenging for you than your first on all fronts. Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n OA:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My second album was received more warmly by the true fans. It had the really deep stuff on it. So for the true diehard fans that was their <\/em>album.<\/p>\n But when we were looking for producers [for that album] there were some who did not want to produce me because they didn\u2019t like the music. Which is fine. But I had still had a hit in Europe with \u201cWindow of Hope\u201d. \u00a0[Record labels] try to push songs on you and then you have to go \u201cNo\u2026no\u201d.\u00a0 So some of the songs on that record were pushed on me\u2026mostly the ones I didn\u2019t write.<\/p>\n The first single from that album, \u201cI Just Had to Hear Your Voice\u201d,<\/em> is a personal favorite of mine but a little birdie told me that you won\u2019t sing that song live anymore. Is that true?<\/strong><\/p>\n OA:<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t hit those notes anymore. [Bursts into laughter] I had to lower it. [Laughs].<\/p>\n I do [still] sing that song but I have to pick certain times when I do it. I don\u2019t want to do it and then disappoint everybody. It\u2019s a hard song to sing. I love it and it\u2019s such a big showstopper but honestly it\u2019s a big song. There are several [of my songs] that are just so wonderful that I can\u2019t really do right anymore and it hurts my heart that I can\u2019t sing them.<\/p>\n![\"Oleta-Adams-Blue\"](\"http:\/\/theduanewells.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Oleta-Adams-2-e1470383515235-932x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n