LaKisha Jones made us believe her when she enraptured those watching "American Idol" with a hair-tossing, bug-eyed, effing-ferocious take on "And I Am Telling You, I'm Not Going." But then, she did.
"Too soon," says Jones, who lives in Houston with her financial planner hubby.
Finishing in fourth during the war of the warblers' sixth season in 2007 didn't mean – as host Ryan Seacrest would say – "the end of the road" for the Flint native (who calls herself a "Flintstonian"). It meant the fast-lane to something even bigger: A record contract with Elite Music, LLC that released her debut disc on Tuesday.
She's so buried juggling promotion for "So Glad I'm Me," including a May 22 gig at Seldom Blues in Flint (when she's home, she's treated like she's Beyonce, she says), with a kicking August-due baby, that she's out of the "Idol" loop. She only periodically catches it and is completely unaware of the is-he-gay? media blitz surrounding this season's Adam Lambert (who, at press time, was in the top two).
"Shut up!" she reacts with a burst of omigawd-no-way oomph when we clue her in, asking her whether a gay "Idol" can, as The New York Times wondered, be marketable: "Oh, yes. I mean, Clay Aiken came out," she goes on. "I don't think that has anything to do with the singing at all. You could be gay or straight. If you're talented, you're talented."
That, she is. She's part of a teeny-tiny gaggle of vocal elites that can sing Whitney Houston – judges raved about her "I Have Nothing" rendition – without making Simon Cowell lose patience, whisper in Paula Abdul's ear and lash out with some snide quip about it being a copycat. A Whitney cover – "You Give Good Love" – pops up again on the album, which hopscotches between R&B, pop and gospel, almost always propelled by Jones' big-voiced bombast.
She reminisces about singing for granny on "Memories," gushes over her 6-year-old daughter on "Beautiful Girl," kicks back with free-spirited "Let's Go Celebrate" and gets all Mary J. Blige on us with the prideful title track, "So Glad I'm Me." Embracing that didn't happen over night, but "it was one of those things where you can't stay there forever, so you have to, like my album says on 'So Glad' – 'I'm gonna get up and try again.' So that's exactly what I did."
And queers love a good underdog. They felt her fervor when she sang the song during a performance last week at Splash, a gay club in New York City – her first time being at one. She recognized a gay following was swelling during her "Idol" time – few homos don't love a diva in the making, right? – and now that she's brought the fierce factor to a gay club, she says, giggling: "I'm officially broken in."
Raised as a Baptist – she sang in church religiously (and also in her bedroom) – Jones is somewhat vague when addressing how her religious beliefs conflict with views on homosexuality, but it's clear she's all for tolerance. "I am a Christian, and I do have my Christian values and things like that, but it doesn't affect my friendships or how I would treat someone who is gay or lesbian. It wouldn't affect my relationship with them. I think everybody has to live their lives themselves, and at the end of the day you go to heaven on your own merit. I can't live for anybody else. I have to live for me."
She had gay friends – and we're not just talking about sweaty butt-bumping ones she might've made at Splash – while attending the University of Michigan-Flint, where she was studying communications. "I was like, 'Ah, I just really wanna sing. I'm tired of writing papers. I don't wanna turn in another paper. I don't wanna study anymore. I don't wanna do this.'"
So she auditioned for "American Idol" back in 2003, but didn't make the cut. Four years later in Baltimore she charmed their pants off. Following the sing-off, there was the tour – and it was then that she got called to audition for "The Color Purple," landing the pivotal Sophia part. The record deal came around the same time. She had – and still has – much to be psyched about, but does she still wish she could swap places with season-six winner Jordin Sparks?
"You always have that feeling of wanting to win, although it's not always best to win," she says (and we can't help but conjure an image of Ruben Studdard, Taylor Hicks and Katherine McPhee in a VH1 "Where Are They Now? 'Idol' Edition"). Self-assured, she continues: "I won in my own right."
Yep – not everyone has his or her own day, but Jones does. June 10 is LaKisha Jones Day, as Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm declared during her "Idol" run. Celebrate with a cake. Some noisemakers. Maybe a couple cocktails. The best way, though?
"Oh, god – go out and buy five copies of the CD per household," she insists. "Start giving presents for the Fourth of July."
LaKisha Jones
CD signing: 4 p.m. May 22
FYE at Genesee Valley Center
3381 S. Linden Road, Flint
Live performance: 9 p.m. May 22
Seldom Blues
400 Renaissance Center
http://www.lakishajones.com
