Vanessa Williams on New Music, Return to Theatre, and Taking Career Risks

The singer/actress is coming out with a dance album and starring in The Devil Wears Prada in London's West End

From the LifeMinute.TV Team

February 22, 2024

Triple threat, Vanessa Williams turned 60 last year, but she reassured us she is not slowing down anytime soon when we caught up with her at Pamella Rolands’ New York Fashion Week Fall 2024 runway show this month. The actress/singer is releasing new music (her first album since 2009), a dance record that she said will make you shake a tail feather. “I’m really excited because I'm still here, still standing and still kicking. And that's exactly what the first line of the whole song is” she says of the first single titled “Legs.”

She is also starring as Miranda Priestly in a musical version of The Devil Wears Prada in London's West End and producing four upcoming projects.

We asked her the secret to success in the industry after all these years, “Never stop learning. Never be stuck. Always be willing to try new things…people that continue to move forward, take risks.”

As for what she thinks was the biggest risk in her career that paid off? “The most unexpected risk was being in the Miss America pageant because I had no intention and I won everything…Syracuse, New York, and America in six months, which completely changed my life at 20 years old,” she revealed of being crowned Miss America in 1984, making history as the first African-American woman to win the title.