I used to think - I said to myself, I probably would've had a much better career if I could invent myself something to go into rehab because if you're an alcoholic or a drug addict, it's just a sexier thing. Let's find out what your gift is. Let's destroy because it can't get any better than this. But anyway - OK, he didn't say that. After my suicide attempt - and I'm in a sanatorium. And I wrote this song because about a little over two years ago, I was in a relationship and had a very bad breakup. And it was the '80s, so dance music was coming up and all of this kind of stuff. But we're going to hear from that song. I said, probably I could have a boyfriend if I lost weight. So yes, I put quite a bit more that you didn't read out there.MARTIN: Let's play one of the first songs from the album. But there is life left, something that we don't even know ahead of us. So I did that. And it's just a more acceptable thing. But mental health problems still gets the door shut.MARTIN: What's made the difference for you, though, in your being willing and able to battle this?
But after her stint on Broadway, she went on to a solo recording career while also battling a number of personal challenges. So if Aretha didn't sing it, I didn't sing it, OK?
So we count it lost, which is what I think is with the young people because they get so much so quick now that they go, OK, well, it can't get no better than this. Finally today, on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we were thinking about what it takes to keep going when you’re up against the odds. In March 1991, just two months after she met keyboardist Billy Meadows in a nightclub where she was singing, they married. So I went back to school. No, it's not.MARTIN: Well, thank you for coming over to see us. You're just like, this is how I feel. Don't try to figure out how the book ends because it takes different twists and turns. I never thought that I would be sitting here talking to you.
So you got a great voice, but no use for you. And you have complications, and you work things out. I could have a relationship. Singer Jennifer Holliday On Making The Best Of Each Day Jennifer Holliday was the original dreamgirl - she won a Tony for her performance in the 80s. But the singer's life wasn't always glamorous: she speaks with host Michel Martin about battling depression, pushing through the low points in her life, and her new album I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I lost weight really quickly. I don't need to be tuned or anything.
So it took me a long - that everything. They can't just say, well, it's not working out.HOLLIDAY: You know, oh, the problem with you is. Well, congratulations on all of that, though.MARTIN: And again, what else do you want to hear from the album? There's some people like that. Things like, your struggles with depression...MARTIN: ...And even the whole vagaries of weight...MARTIN: ...And how that played into your career. It has not been approved yet. I didn't know it.MARTIN: That's really brave. I said, I don't need my voice fixed. It goes on, you know, from there. So Marvin Hamlisch - the late Marvin Hamlisch from Broadway and movies and etc. Jennifer Yvette Holliday is an American singer and actress. And when they come around and they start talking to you, first of all, they want to know why did you try to take your life, what do you think is the problem. I want to play "Love Dance." And I'm telling you, I'm not going nowhere.MARTIN: I've been visiting with the Tony and Grammy award-winning artist Jennifer Holliday. I have been blind. This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. So we give up early. It would just be all right. He said, Jennifer, everything goes into this Pro Tools now.