H.E.R.
MUSICIAN
Big hair, big sunglasses, and big dreams. H.E.R. made a choice to keep her identity unknown, never fully revealing her face. “I’m not hiding,” she muses. “Concealing my identity came from me trying to find ways to be super honest in my music and for people to hear the music for what it is and not have any judgment or make any assumptions,” Gabrielle ‘Gabi’ Wilson shares in an interview with The Recording Academy. Ironically, H.E.R. stands for Having Everything Revealed, a moniker she decided to take on when she was going through heartbreak while creating her first self-titled E.P., described as a full of soul, a post-breakup gift brimming with vulnerability, and self-assurance all at once.
What many people don’t know is the fact that Gabi has been performing since the age of 6. Raised by a Filipina mother and a black father, she would always identify with both cultures. At home as a kid, shoes would come off at the door and she’d belt her heart out at karaoke. Growing up with instruments, mainly because of her father’s influence, she learned to play the guitar, piano, drums and bass. Deemed as a child prodigy, Gabi’s first brush with fame came when she performed a cover of Alicia Keys’ If I Ain’t Got You on The Today Show at the age of 10 along with publishing her poetry book entitled, Anything on Earth Poems. Soon after, she joined Radio Disney’s Next Big Thing, and landed a deal with RCA at the age of 14.
H.E.R. rose to fame when she mysteriously dropped a cover of rapper Drake’s Jungle in 2017 and fellow musicians like Rihanna, Alicia Keys and Usher to name a few became part of her following. She then went on to forge her own path all while wearing a veil of mystery where some of her biggest triumphs to date was nabbing five Grammy nominations and winning Best R&B Performance and R&B Album of the Year, as well as headlining this year’s Coachella shortly. “I do this because I know I’m meant for something greater. I know I have a purpose and I’m trying to fulfill that.” And the rest they say, is history—her story.—LA