June is known as Black Music Month in the radio and music industries, and singer-songwriter Avery*Sunshine is celebrating it with her style.
She’s been described as a ray of sunshine when she takes the stage, grabs the mic and hits the keyboards.
“My music is soul music, that thing that comes from here, straight to there. It is my life, it’s honesty,” she said, pointing to her heart.
In February, Avery*Sunshine won a Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album for her album, “So Glad To Know You.”
Although she is bubbly while performing on stage, a lot of her songs come from a place of pain and confusion.
“I did not think that my music was going to be that, but I started my career as Avery*Sunshine when I was going through a divorce. And I think it started as therapy for me. It was therapeutic for me to get it out,” she said.
NY1 caught up with the entertainer at City Winery in Manhattan, where she wowed a crowd of her fans.
It’s been a long journey for her.
She was reading music and playing the piano around eight years old. At 13-years-old, she started playing piano in various church denominations near her Chester, Pennsylvania home, just a few miles from Philadelphia.
“Catholic, United Methodist, African Methodist Episcopal, there were a couple of Pentecostal churches in there and there was a Baptist. So, every Sunday there was a different church,” Avery*Sunshine said.
Some doubted her chances of musical success — even telling her not to put out one of her songs that eventually became a hit. That song, “Ugly Part of Me,” is an about a person with a bad attitude in a relationship.
The entertainer has a busy schedule, not only with performing internationally, she also has a podcast, a make-up line and her family life. Her husband and her son are a part of the band that hits the stage with her.
She hit a few milestones this year. Along with the Grammy win, she turned 50 and recently lost more than 50 pounds.
She says she shed the weight to stay healthy and younger longer. She’s hoping for many more decades of performing and telling stories about her idols, like The Queen of Soul, who once asked her to come to New York.
“Aretha Franklin invited us to perform for her birthday,” Avery*Sunshine said.
Franklin wanted to hear her sing a live performance of her hit, “Call My Name” — another chart topper for Avery*Sunshine about a couple drifting apart.
Also for Black Music Month, fellow Grammy-winner will be performing at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Friday, June 27.
The concert, titled “Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over, One Night Only,” will be one of the final performances at the venue before it closes for renovations.
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