Onitsha

“Search Me” treads on turf that even long-standing gospel divas might fear to go, as the wonders of modern engineering yield a very modern-sounding mix of gospel matriarch Mahalia Jackson’s original, classic recording, with Onitsha dueting with “The Queen.” Presuming to traffic in such hallowed company is a bold, even risky move, and any serious gospel fan will tell you straight up that you better have the goods to deliver, or get out of town, and quickly. Never even presuming to out-sing the greatest of gospel greats, Onitsha simply, and with all due respect, just sings her parts in her own, natural, captivating and unaffected way, turning out a track that can’t help but make any listener smile from here to next year.

Producer and co-writer Crawford has no trouble putting his finger on exactly what it was about Onitsha that made her stand out from the countless singers a hit producer hears, in the search for exciting and original new talent.

“Onitsha is a truly unique voice,” he says. “I hear lots and lots of singers who can really sing. They’ve got all the runs and all the riffs, but they just don’t have that extra `something.’ Think of all the classic singers, from James Cleveland, to Stevie Wonder…Gladys Knight. When their voices come on the radio, you immediately know who it is. That’s the stuff legends are made of.”

Onitsha, who laughingly refers to herself as “an L.A. girl, all the way,” was indeed born in Los Angeles and lived there her first ten years, at which time her parents divorced and she moved to Oklahoma, where her mother attended Bible college, until she was 15 and relocated, again and for good, to her original and-still home.

Onitsha came into the world as the newest entry into a long lineage of great singers, inheriting that same gift for music herself. Singing as long as she can remember, she in fact made her formal debut when she was three years old in a church musical production.