Doing it H.E.R. way: singer rises as focus remains on music
NEW YORK — When Gabi Wilson is H.E.R. — her R&B singer stage name — she is usually rocking big hair and big sunglasses, rarely showing her full face to her fans.
The point is to give the public one simple thing to focus on: the music.
But other days, her hair is pulled into a ponytail or a bun and her face is clear, like the time she was being driven in an Uber with a friend and "Best Part," her Top 5 R&B hit, came on the radio.
"I love that song 'Best Part,'" H.E.R. recalled the driver saying, adding that he was in his late '60s. "It reminds me of my wife."
"I wanted to cry," she added. "It was so special."
That anonymity proved two things for the singer: Her choice to release music without giving too much detail about her life worked, and her fanbase is not just made up of teenagers who mainly consume music through streaming — R&B purists love her, too.
Since Sony's RCA Records announced H.E.R. mysteriously in 2016, she has become a rising R&B star, achieving success on the road, on streaming services, the charts and even at awards shows.
Songs like "Best Part," ''Focus" and "Losing" perfectly blend the alternative R&B sound that's popular today with the traditional R&B sound that some feel is missing from the contemporary music scene.
Her first two EPS — "H.E.R., Vol. 1" and "H.E.R., Vol. 2" — gave her an immediate fan base thanks to the songs' honest lyrics and vibey melodies, as she sang about complicated relationships and love lapses. Most people wouldn't think she just turned 21 months ago.
"The way that I released the music did exactly what I wanted it to, which was make people just listen to the music," said H.E.R., which stands for "Having Everything Revealed." ''(And) just listen to the message for what it is because we tend to listen with our eyes sometimes. Sometimes it's all about hype, and I didn't want hype . ... I don't want people to love my music because of what I look like or who I know or whatever."
"I feel like maybe some people wouldn't have accepted the music if they knew I was 19," said H.E.R., who was that age when her first EP dropped. "Some people, they make these assumptions before they even listen to the music."
"Vol. 1," her seven-song set, was named itunes' R&B album of 2016. She earned a nomination for best new artist at the 2017 Soul Train Awards. And she opened on tour for Bryson Tiller and completed her first headlining tour.
But this year, she reached the Top 10 of the R&B charts with "Could've Been," the gold-selling "Focus" and the platinum hit "Best Part," a duet with Daniel Caesar. She earned a whopping seven nominations at the upcoming Soul Train Awards, making her the most nominated act. And she opened on the road for Chris Brown and will launch her second headlining tour on Saturday in Atlanta.
She is Apple Music's latest "Up Next" artist and ranks sixth among R&B acts on the streaming platform. Her success has been so major that a male singer has copied her likeness and released songs under the name H.I.M.