There’s one thing H.E.R.
wasnot, amid the mayhem of her first Grammys week: a deer in headlights.
An entourage of friends and family sat around the bed as she was preened by hair and beauty.
Downstairs everyone from Lana Del Rey to Travis Scott, Barbra Streisand to Joni Mitchell walked the red carpet.
H.E.R., aka Gabriella Wilson, speaks with the calm of someone who has practiced for this moment forever.
She was signed to RCA when she was 14.
“It’s funny,” she tells EW.
I saw a bunch of celebrities.
I met [producer] Rickey Minor and asked him for a picture."
She works with Minor now, and she recently showed him the 12-year-old photo.
“Now here I am performing.
It means that much to me.
A full circle moment.”
She deems it fate and claims that as the key to her nerveless energy.
“It was already written,” she says.
“It was already supposed to happen because I was here.
The most astonishing thing about her Album of the Year nomination is thatH.E.R.
is actually a compilation of her two EPs: 2016’sVolume 1and 2017’sVolume 2.
“It’s an EP!
!,” she says, laughing.
“I put it out to see what would happen.
‘Let’s see how this goes.’
I didn’t think I’d be nominated for Album of the Year.”
For H.E.R., Grammys week was “hectic.”
She bagged a $10,000 massage chair by Kahuna Chairs at the GBK gifting suite, which was unexpected.
Even more shocking was her run-in with legendary producer Quincy Jones at a Spotify showcase.
“Oh my gosh,” she says, processing it all.
“Apparently he stood up and he’sreallyold during my guitar solo.
He said I was special.
He doesn’t say that often.”
A vital part of H.E.R.
’s story has been anonymity.
She’s spoken to the press rarely and hides behind sunglasses.
The anonymity is going to be tougher now that her star is rising.
“I knew it was gonna be hard to maintain.
Sometimes I don’t believe the stuff that’s happening.
My show sold out?
It still hasn’t hit me.”
The fact she’s so low-key is a choice.
“Artists like Prince and Janet Jackson maintained their mystique because they weren’t going to the clubs.
You’d see Prince with a guitar in his hands if you saw him out.
I’m out to play music.
Ain’t no turning back now.”
Of her first Grammys experience she had zero expectations.
I’m trying to live in the moment.
I’m in it.”
There was a standing ovation and Davis commended her as a “great, great talent”.
She considered the performance a chance to impressthepeople to impress.
“It’s crazy!”
she says of the list of attendants.
“A lot of important people in this room.
The fact they get to see me do my thing is cool.”
first heard about her Grammy nominations while she was on tour in Houston last December.
She slept through the announcements.
Then her manager called their crew to an emergency meeting.
He came in and yelled: “You have five Grammy nominations!”
“We were all crying, I called my mom, I lost it,” says H.E.R.
“Couldn’t believe it.”
Her mentor, Alicia Keys, has been a shining example.
As she collected her award for Best R&B Album, she looked emotionally stirred.
“First thing I wanna say is this is unbelievable!”
“And second: it’s not even an album, it’s an EP!”
The nominations have influenced H.E.R.
’s approach to her debut record, which she’s light on details for.
She’s making it in New York.
Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins is involved.
“My idea of the album process has shifted,” she says.
“The nomination helped me because now I don’t overthink it.”
She wants her debut to reflect how much she’s evolved.
“I’m changing every single day.
I’m turning 22.
I’m not the same person I was,” she says.
She also has a song she wants Stevie Wonder to collaborate on.
“I’m trying to manifest that,” she says.
If there’s any time to put something into the universe.
