She's not Jennifer Holliday, but she does better than I expected she would.

Don't expect to hear her sing And I'm Telling You unless you see the film. Apparently The Mouse doesn't want that performance to leak to YouTube. :-)

Hot damn.


Beth Ditto of the Gossip kind of reminds me of Jennifer Holliday.

But what large black women have won or even placed highly in singing competitions? I can't think of any from [fill in the country] Idol, Star Search, or anything similar. In fact, large black women may wow the critics and some parts of the marketplace, but it's rare that they win popularity contests against the conventionally cute. Big black guys (see: Ruben Studdard) get cut more slack than similarly sized women.

Anyway, this little girl has a huge voice and a level of control that is incredible for someone of her age. But she's too young to deliver the emotion of a song. She's learned to emulate the sound of a deeply emotive style of music, but right now, she's all surface. She may yet turn into an awesome singer, but she's currently just a bundle of raw talent waiting to develop into something more.

dag already posted the link to Jennifer Holliday, but I'll repeat it here: http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=4662

Scroll to about 3:30 to hear the beginning of the same song.