india.arie – Singer with God in her soul

Inspired by our recent articles on rock songs dedicated to God, a reader from East London wrote in to say that we should have also looked at R&B and gospel.

Fair point. Of course, gospel is by definition music for God, and need not be signposted. But R&B (which at the moment is in a very sorry state, what with almost everybody doing the same corporate thing sounding exactly the same) is different.

Most R&B singers profess a belief in God. Yet some sing about little else but pimpin’ and grindin’ and showing off their bling. And then some of them go on to sing songs of praise to God, almost as if to appease God’s anger about the previous pimpin’ and grindin’ (yes, we’re looking at you, R Kelly, and all your clones). That doesn’t make much sense.

So it’s great that there are some R&B singers who can express their spirituality without compromise. One of them is India.Arie, whose music rises above the silly rendition of her name.

On her latest album, Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship, India uses her faith in God to deal with the break-up of a relationship (hopefully not the one that inspired her beautiful marriage proposal song Can I Walk With You on a previous album). In the song Good Mourning (yeah, great pun), she recalls: “I prayed for God’s will to be done. The very next day you were gone.”

You’d think that this would get the singer down, right? Well, here’s what happened next:

“Good morning optimism. Good morning to my faith, Good morning to the beginning of a brand new day. I know that God’s will be done, so I lay down my pain and I’m moving on. I know that God’s will be done. So it’s a good morning after all”.

Not much of the expected self-pity there (are you listening, Nick Lachey?). And what a beautiful philosophy!

And here’s a shout-out to the bling brigade, from There’s Hope:

“It ain’t about the size of your car; it’s about the size of the faith in your heart. There’s hope. It doesn’t cost a thing to smile; you don’t have to pay to laugh. You better thank God for that.”