Back in the day, if someone at the record label didn't care or like your music, it never got to the public. It just got shelved.
— Jennifer Holliday
I do think the love-gone-wrong songs go over better, only because those melodies and those lyrics have a different feel that you can grasp on if you're a torch singer like myself.
Usually, if someone wants an inspiring-type number - patriotic, gospel, big love song - then I think you do think of me.
Success is overwhelming.
For a long time, they thought I had lupus, then they thought I had something else. Finally, when I couldn't walk, they did a spinal tap and conclusively diagnosed me with M.S.
I know that the music industry has changed, but I'd love it if Adele and John Legend would write me songs.
I have health challenges, I have life challenges, just like everyone else.
I'm not like Stephanie Mills or Whitney Houston with actual hits. My fans think everything I did was a hit.
The LGBT Community was mostly responsible for birthing my career, and I am deeply indebted to you... You have loved me faithfully and unconditionally, and for so many years you provided me with work even though my star had long since faded.
A lot of times we base everything just on our immediate circumstance. We don't see a big picture for our lives. We don't love ourselves. We don't have a way of kind of gauging the future.
I was privileged to know the late, great Miss Etta James, and I did get a chance to spend some time with her and hang out with her.
When I was with Geffen Records, I weighed almost 400 pounds. The label told me that I had a great voice but wasn't marketable having a weight image.
I always tell people, 'It'll get greater later' meaning that sometimes we have to pass through whatever it is. We know that we can get through it because others have.
Aretha Franklin, first and foremost... That's my top girl there.
Some people run away from things.
When I was suffering with depression, people weren't talking about depression. It had a stigma.
I'm a Broadway baby! So, therefore, I started in the theater.
Haven't a lot of us just missed at a lot of things and thought that we wouldn't have another chance at it? So we give up early.
A lot of my die-hard fans think I have a lot of hits, but I don't.
The biggest thing I've had to overcome was clinical depression. Your mind is the most powerful weapon you have once you can get control of your mind... I had to stop hearing the negative voices where Jennifer was not worthy of love or living.
I continually still fight every day for my life, not only still battling mental health problems but battling multiple sclerosis, which also has depression as one of its side effects.
I had ballooned out to close to 400 pounds at one point. And in the '80s, we were just beginning to get on video and disco. So therefore, I did not fit in, and my record company let me go because they said, 'Look, you're just not marketable enough with the weight problem.'
I'm quite sure we all have a sweet love song that we dance to or recall from our wedding or something, like 'At Last,' but I think that it is the love-gone-wrong songs that touch even men.
It was a very hard decision to let people know about the multiple sclerosis because we're in an industry where illness is not something that show business likes.
For singers, our singing voice is our natural voice, not the speaking.
If your mind is not willing, everything will go. There's so much great power of our mind that we take for granted, and how we think and what positiveness can do.
Either you can sing, or you can't.
A lot of times we base everything just on our immediate circumstance. We don't see a big picture for our lives. We don't love ourselves. We don't have a way of kind of gauging the future, so we count it lost.
I have been blind. I have been paralyzed. But each day, if I wake up, then I know He's left me here for a reason, and I have to say yes. And I have to get up. And I have to make the best of that day.
The gay community has been so faithful and good to me.
The music industry is a very rough industry. Many years ago, I think it was even rougher in the sense that a lot of it was predicated on image.
I am, you know, really fighting for myself and my life. And I think the message that I could give to anybody is that it's never too late to start your life again and dream new dreams.
