H.E.R. Artistfacts

H.E.R. song list

H.E.R. Artistfacts

June 27, 1997
H.E.R. is Gabi Wilson, a singer and multi-instrumentalist from Vallejo, California who was raised by an African-American father and Filipino mother.
Wilson was discovered, aged 10, as a piano prodigy. She appeared on the Today show covering Alicia Keys' music and was scooped up by Keys' management company.
Wilson signed to RCA at 14 and dropped a track, "Something to Prove," under her real name.
She released her debut EP, H.E.R. Volume 1 (2016), the singer's first music under her performing moniker. Prior to H.E.R's performance, on the Late Late Show on January 8, 2019, the songstress explained to host James Corden about the meaning behind her stage name.

"It stands for Having Everything Revealed," she said. "It represented this time of becoming a young woman and going through heartbreak, and all these things that happen... I call it the evolution of woman."

Wilson added that the name is also a way to ensure that the focus of her career is on her music and not her image. "The best way for me to release my music was to be honest, and in order for me to do that, I felt like, let me not put my face on my music. Let me not put a name on my music, and just give my music the way that it is; its pure message," she explained. "That's all you can see: H.E.R."
Wilson has several pet snakes that live with her at home. She told The Guardian in a November 2018 interview that her favorite is named Mike.
H.E.R's father was in a cover band and the first musical thing he taught her was a blues scale on a guitar. "I learned how to play blues before anything else – a simple blues groove," she told Radio.com. "Anytime there was a jam session in our living room, I could keep up."
Gabriella Wilson marked a milestone when the H.E.R. Stratocaster was made available for purchase in September 2020. It meant she became the first ever Black female artist to launch a signature guitar in the history of Fender.
H.E.R. got an early taste of success by winning a talent contest at the California State Fair as a child. She was awarded a $200 check, which her mother put in a frame.
She wrote poetry as a young child. When H.E.R. was 8 years old, her mother gathered her childhood poems and had them self-published as a book, Anything on Earth Poems, making her a published poet before she ever wrote a song.
H.E.R.'s first song came from a songwriting assignment given to her by her mother when she was still a child. Her mom would occasionally come up with titles and prompts for her daughter to turn into songs and one of those early exercises became "Keep On," a song about perseverance, staying focused on your dreams and refusing to give up.
H.E.R. plays Squeak in the 2023 film adaptation of The Color Purple. "I have always loved the color purple," she told Hello Beautiful at the movie's premiere. "It's one of my favorite colors, specifically because of Prince. I always make that connection to Prince with the color."
She got another high-profile voice-acting gig in 2026 with the DreamWorks film Forgotten Island, which is set in the Philippines (she voices the lead character, Jo). "When they told me it was about Filipinos and it was animated, I was like, 'I'm in!'" she told People. "There's never been a film like this. It's a big deal for the culture."

Comments: 1

C Del Rio from Fairfield, California Amazing talent. You are such an inspiration. When you were in sixth grade my husband was your teacher, at Solano Middle School. He said you were so talented. You have achieved so much. Your new song "I can't breathe" says it all. It should be blasting from rooftops. Thank you, THANK YOU, for using your talents to remind everyone to be aware of social injustice. Your music touches us all. Music can cause change, awareness.

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