Pop music is all about transitions and reinventions. Pop’s dynamic nature means artists must continuously change and grow to ensure their work remains relevant. So what about artists who step away for several years? How does a veteran artist return after an extended period in which she’s done other work? That’s a question Vanessa Williams must have asked when planning her comeback record, Survivor, her first album in 15 years. The singer wasn’t silent or gone from the public eye in that decade and a half. She was arguably at her busiest, establishing herself as a popular comedian, television personality, and stage actress.
One of the things Williams had to contend with when looking to record music was the permanent change in the relationships between labels and musicians. After several fitful meetings with labels, she decided to adapt to this new world. Speaking to Woman’s World, she said, “Before COVID, I went into the studio and said, ‘You know what? I’m going to pay for it myself and just start recording. I want to do songs that matter to me for my life.'”
Williams described the songs on Survivor as important to her life, and the collection of tracks reflects much of her repertoire. When she debuted in 1988 with The Right Stuff, she was marketed as a dance-pop, urban-pop singer akin to Janet Jackson or Jody Watley. The album had trendy dance cuts and pretty ballads (including the swoony “Dreamin'”). Her sophomore set, The Comfort Zone (1991), built on that success, and its smash hit, “Save the Best for Last”, set a signature sound for the singer: lush, orchestrated ballads. She had other top-20 hits like “Love Is”, “The Sweetest Days”, and “Colors of the Wind” that followed that formula.
After 1997’s Next, Williams’ recording output became more sporadic as she nurtured her acting career. The handful of studio albums she did release moved away from the glossy pop and funky dance of her 1990s work, and she started recording sultry jazzy albums that flirted with Latin pop, bossa nova, and smooth jazz.
So, Survivor sounds a bit like a setlist for one of Williams’ live shows. It has some pop standards and jazz numbers, neo-disco and club-pop bangers, Latin-pop tunes, and R&B ballads. The first single, “Legs (Keep Dancing)”, gives listeners a good idea of the album’s central premise: despite the long absence from music, Williams has returned without missing a step. The song is inspired by Diahann Carroll, and Williams very much wants to remind her audience that she’s a vibrant and vital performer.
“I’m still here, still standing, still kicking,” she announces on “Legs (Keeps Dancing)”. The song is an empowered dance track that glows with Vanessa Williams’ confidence and flair. It’s defiant, too, as she anticipates some ageism, warning her detractors, “So say what you say, expect me to fade, I don’t think about it.” As the tight beats pound, Williams belts with zeal and power. It’s great to hear the singer embrace her dance diva persona, especially because she’s incredibly sassy and insouciant, leaning into the kind of feisty attitude that made her performances on Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives so fun. She sounds unbothered and unfazed as she insists,
“My time is managed doing much better things
Then, trying to prove myself to you…So I made up my mind
When the world is unkind
I don’t think about it.”
The song was co-written by Kipper Jones, who wrote Williams’ first dance hit, “The Right Stuff”, in 1988. It’s a nice bookend of sorts, as “The Right Stuff” portrays the singer as a spirited young feminist who isn’t shy to declare what she wants despite her youth. She exhibits a similar energy on “Legs”, but she’s mature and wise.
She strikes a similar pose with the house-pop song “Bop!” which includes contributions from Drag Race alumna Trixie Mattel and Lion Babe, and the alternative R&B act features daughter Jillian Hervey. The song is a nod to Williams’ devoted gay following and her extensive work with RuPaul’s Drag Race, having appeared on several of the show’s many spin-offs, even hosting the drag queen singing competition Queen of the Universe with Mattel. (Hervey also made an appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race, as well.) It’s a fantastic song, with lots of references to Williams’ affection for drag and ball culture, such as referring to herself as “mother” and her fans as “the children” and quipping that “with every step you take, it’s tens across the board!” It’s a glorious highlight, full of campy humor that defines drag, house music, and much of Vanessa Williams’ career.
The other wonderful dance song is the moving “Here’s to You” – a fast-paced EDM tune that pays tribute to several people in Vanessa Williams’ life who have made a difference in her life. Like Janet Jackson‘s disco take on her fallen friends, “Together Again”, Williams chooses to honor her loved ones with a shiny, gleaming dance track that celebrates life. “These are names you may never show,” she concedes, “But that’s alright, they loved me so / And the way I say thank you is to make sure the world knows all about you!” As she sings about her loved ones, whom she refers to as her “brave ones”, she sounds grateful and joyful.
The other aspect of Vanessa Williams’ image is that of a survivor, hence the album’s name and title track. Her career started with a splash in 1984, becoming the first Black Miss America. Right before the end of her reign, Penthouse published several nude photographs she took as a young struggling model and actress. Her career seemed to be over, and it took a while before she made her triumphant comeback in 1988 with her debut album. Williams had repeatedly admitted that it was a struggle and the controversy “took every ounce of credibility and talent that I had and wiped it out.”
So, yes, the lyrics to “Survivor” can sound cliched and nondescript. Still, Williams uses her considerable acting skills as a song stylist to transcend any familiarity with the song’s themes to make a moving and powerful song. So, while there is nothing especially unique about feel-good lyrics like “Keep it up, to the finish / Don’t give up, you can win it / Stay with it, survivor.” Williams imbues the song with a world-weary power from surviving adversity.
About halfway through Survivor, we land on the first pop standard, “Junk Man”. Though it’s great to hear Williams sing slick, glossy dance music, she has a profound affinity for pre-rock pop, the Great American Songbook, and American theatre songs. Her velvety tone and perfect pitch pair beautifully with a track like the swinging, jazzy “Junk Man”. She’s equally effective and entrancing on the Cab Calloway classic “Zaz Zuh Zaz”, which recalls her excellent turn in the Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer musical St. Louis Woman. On Calloway’s tune, Williams gets to be brassy and sexy and mugs furiously; it’s a performance with a wide range that is very impressive.
Because Vanessa Williams has established a career as a hyphenate, it’s fitting that she takes on Frank Sinatra‘s classic “Come Dance with Me” (written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen). She’s appropriately coquettish and sly in the nimble swing number. Her love of musical theatre—especially musicals that depict Black American culture and history—is represented with a hopeful and poignant take on “Being Good Isn’t Good Enough” from the Jule Styne musical Hallelujah, Baby!
The classic pre-rock material is handled by the trio of Christopher Hall, Henry Hey, and Liz Curtis, who create arrangements and soundscapes for Williams that sound lush and classic without dipping into stale nostalgia. One of the issues of Williams’ 2000s material was that it often had sleepy production. Hall, Hey, and Curtis create charts for the singer that sound exciting and lively, bringing life to familiar songs. Williams also sings these songs with the power and confidence of a world-class chanteuse and responds well to the trio’s excellent production and arrangements.
After listening to Survivor, one thing that remains clear is that Vanessa Williams thrives on being an old-school Entertainer with a capital E. She’s the kind of triple-threat who excels in many different styles of music, and when returning to recording music after such a lengthy hiatus, she cements her wide-ranging skill set. It’s a record that emphasizes what a hard-working pro she is. Williams may not necessarily be remembered as the most innovative artist, but she’s supremely talented and wildly gifted, and it’s a great privilege to hear her make music again.