Sun Gazette (November 2004)

Vanessa Williams
Brings holiday spirit to the Community Arts Center Her Painful Divorce, The Pressures Of Superstardom And Her New Life As A Single Mom

by Stacia Fleegal

Award-winning recording artist Vanessa Williams is slated to perform a holiday season show, "A Vanessa Williams Christmas," at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 8 at the Community Arts Center, 220 W. Fourth St. Williams has received more than 30 awards, including a Soul Train Music Award, an MTV Video Music Award and a Billboard Music Award. She was nominated for 14 Grammy awards. She's acted in several feature films, including "Soul Food" and "Eraser," and has been featured in numerous magazines, including Ebony, Cosmopolitan, People Weekly, VIBE and InStyle. She's even been in a Broadway production, "Kiss of the
Spider Woman."

And this year, Williams has released another Christmas album, "Silver & Gold," and will perform festive favorites right here in Williamsport from this
and her earlier holiday albums, "Star Bright" (1996) and "Our Favorite Things" (2001). 

There is no doubt that Williams is a busy woman, career-minded, family-oriented and spiritually aware. While answering questions about her achievements
via her cell phone, Williams was simultaneously appeasing several of her four children and maneuvering through four lanes of traffic. She is a woman who has
been in the spotlight of pop culture for two decades now, since being crowned Miss America during the 1984 pageant.

Of all of Williams' accomplishments, she cites motherhood and her NAACP Image Award, granted for her performance in the film "Soul Food" after four previous nominations, as the achievements of which she is most proud. "It's the most lasting (sense of accomplishment) because it's from my own African-American community," she said of the award given by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Talking about her movie roles, she is reminded of Arnold Schwarzenegger, with whom she starred alongside in the 1996 film "Eraser." She described him as a "larger-than-life personality," and a favorite of the celebrities with whom she's worked. The movie role opened another door for Williams. Upon meeting Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver, she became affiliated with the Special Olympics and has served on the organization's board of directors for four years. Other charities that Williams is involved with include the Red Dress campaign for heart disease and the March of Dimes.

Of all her roles, though, Williams speaks with great pride about the Broadway productions "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and "In the Woods." "Broadway is something I try to do every three years or so. I love it because I can sing and act and dance, I can combine all my various talents in one performance," she said.

Williams will perform "Silver & Gold Live at the Palace" beginning at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Dec. 4 at the Palace Theatre along Broadway in New York City. The dates will offer Williams performing her greatest hits and Christmas favorites. At the moment, Williams is working on remaking some of her favorite '70s love songs, including Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and The Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye," for an album called "Everlasting Love," after the Chaka Khan song of the same name. The album is expected to be released around Valen- tine's Day. Williams also will begin filming a new movie called "Brothers in
January," will make several television appearances to promote "Silver & Gold" and continues to do commercials for Radio Shack, which she has done for nearly five years. At the moment, though, Christmas seems to be Williams' main focus. "It's a big time of year when you have four kids," she said with a laugh.

The idea for her first Christmas album back in the 1990s came from both a love of the holiday itself and the wealth of performance material it provides. After Williams and her musical director Rob Mathes put together "Star Bright," Lava Records, through Atlantic Records, asked for a second. She and Mathes, who produced the album, have a great musical relationship and enjoy making holiday music together - Williams, in fact, was introduced to and refers to Mathes as "Mr. Christmas." Neither wanted to do an album of commercialized, "done before" Christmas songs, and the originality of each of the holiday albums they've put together reflect this mutual ethic. Besides the New York City dates, Williams will perform in Baltimore and several dates in Florida. In addition, she will do a "live on request" show on A&E.

She said her favorite song from "Silver & Gold" is "December Lullaby," written by Mathes and featuring the angelic voice of her youngest daughter, 4-year-old Sasha. When prompted to divulge her favorite thing about Christmas, Williams' love of the season is again very apparent. "Family togetherness, Mass at church, the music, the atmosphere, the decorations and just the sanctity of the whole holiday," she said.

To the fans in Williamsport, Williams assured this reporter that her set list will include not only a vast amount of material from her Christmas albums, but her greatest hits, such as "Save the Best for Last" and "The Sweetest Days," as well. Knowing that this article would appear on Thanksgiving Day, Williams said she is thankful for all the gifts in her life - career, music, family and health - and reminds us, in a true awareness of the holiday spirit, that people should give thanks for these blessings not one day a year, but on a daily basis. 

Tickets for Williams' Christmas show at the Community Arts Center range in price from $27.50 to $37.50. Tickets are available available by calling 326-2424 or online at www.pct.edu/ commarts.