Latifah Returns To Rule The Stage
Published: Nov 2, 2007
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Listeners who know Queen Latifah only from hip-hop hits such as "Ladies First" and "U.N.I.T.Y." might be shocked to hear her singing - and singing well - tunes written by Billy Strayhorn and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
But considering her career has moved from hip hop through TV (sitcoms and a daytime talk show) and acclaim as a film actress, maybe nothing the woman born Dana Owens does should be a surprise.
Besides, singing has brought Latifah back to the stage after several years spent in front of the camera.
Latifah hit the road with Erykah Badu and Jill Scott following the release of 2004's "The Dana Owens Album," which featured her versions of Strayhorn's "Lush Life" as well as tunes by Bill Withers and Joe Zawinul.
"I've always felt comfortable on stage. Performing has been like a home, it feels normal to me," Latifah says by telephone while driving to a tour stop in Troy, N.Y.
"But films and TV had started to get more dominant than performing, so it took me a minute to get my legs underneath me," she explains.
"After a while I started to find my voice, my live voice, and find that level of comfort I had when I was rapping," Latifah says. "Now I'm back in the game."
That's evident on "Trav'lin' Light," released in September, on which Latifah interprets Jobim's "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars," Nina Simone's "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl" and Phoebe Snow's "Poetry Man."
Latifah took a greater role in the studio this time.
"I was taking a lot more direction on ["The Dana Owens Album"] than on this one," Latifah says.
"I wanted to learn" from the album's producers, including R&B great Arif Mardin, she says.
"I wanted to do my thing but I wanted to learn, to figure out how to do it myself," Latifah says. "I had a chance to sort of perform and get my legs back. When I did ['Trav'lin' Light'] I felt a lot more comfortable picking songs and going to the studio."
Not even Latifah could have predicted a career arc that stretches from her first single, "Wrath of My Madness" on respected hip-hop label Tommy Boy, through her Oscar nomination for the 2002 film "Chicago" and on to her current headlining tour.
But it didn't happen by accident.
She and her longtime business partner, Shakim Compere, "come up with ideas and we challenge each other. Can we do this? Let's go figure this out. We've done that since we were teenagers," Latifah says.
"No idea is taken as a joke, or just something to dream about and let go of," Latifah says. "Dreams become reality when we put our minds to it."
Latifah also has become a role model for women who don't fit the super-slender look of many female celebrities.
"I think it's important that America reflects Americans and that we keep that diversity and allow people to be who they are and be comfortable with themselves," Latifah says.
"We make a lot of bad decisions, especially as women when our confidence level is not where it needs to be," she says. "So much of what we think about ourselves is based on images we see in the media. So I think it's important to see someone who is my size who feels comfortable with who she is."
ON TOUR
Queen Latifah
WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday
WHERE: Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater; (727) 791-7400
COST: $49.75
Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.
