Onitsha

Onitsha, background singer for platinum-selling duo Mary Mary, is a rare and inspiring study in contrasts. Her debut album, Church Girl, proves she is one of the brightest new stars in the firmament of contemporary inspirational music, and yet the concept of "star-tripping" is not even in her vocabulary. She and her acclaimed producer and co-writer, Shep Crawford (Whitney Houston, Kelly Price, Yolanda Adams), write song after song, each somehow managing to obey all the rules of great, accessible, popular music, while at the same time stretching—if not breaking altogether—every single one of them.

And at every turn throughout Church Girl, Onitsha succeeds mightily and majestically at tearing down walls between musical genres, radio formats and—most significantly—the "us-and-them" mentality that has much too often, and for far too long, kept the Church and the world in their own separate corners of Creation.

“My Life” is easy, sturdy R&B/funk, that finds Onitsha unleashing mind-bending improvisations and riffs as if they were second nature, backed by a star-studded ensemble that includes Erica and Tina of Mary, Mary, Deborah Cox and CoCo of ‘90s R&B icons, SWV.

“Don’t Give Up” struts a steady hip-hop groove that embodies the Onitsha sound, with its solid, punchy bottom end, and just enough instrumental color to add the right flavor; all making sure to leave lots of space for Onitsha and the ensemble to lay down vocals that are nothing less than stunning.

“He Is” takes a cool, retro-soul vibe—slinky wah-wah guitar and all—and melds it to a modern-to-the-minute rhythm section, yielding a best-of-both-worlds amalgam that is both compellingly original, and like all of Onitsha’s work, relentlessly catchy, the way any great popular song should be.

Onitsha proudly shows her church roots in “God Is On Your Side,” which deftly and even ingeniously adds a touch of hip-hop rhythm and jazzy pop to the reverential Sunday morning spirit that lies at the heart of it all.