We recently connected with CHARLEAN CARMON and have shared our conversation below.

CHARLEAN, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I started singing at the age of 12 when I joined my middle school’s choir. I think the choir director, Ms. Beverly , encouraged me to audition for a solo, so I did. I auditioned to sing the solo on Oh Holy Night for the Christmas concert. When I finished singing everybody clapped a few and my friends were cheering for me. I thought to myself, ” hmm , I must be pretty good”. It was wonderful to discover something that I enjoyed and that I was good at. I continued singing in my high school choir. We had a magnificent music teacher, Dr. Lena McLin. We sang opera, pop, jazz ,gospel and show tunes and we lots of performances. By the end of my Freshman year of high school I knew I wanted to be a professional singer.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started singing in middle school and I haven’t stopped. I sang in my high school choir and we performed a lot. I was also in a local band in Chicago while I was in high school called Together under the direction of Harold Harris. I was in a band called Impulse while I was a student at Howard University. They were all top notch musicians. We did covers and few original songs that were great! A few years after In graduated, fellow Howard alum Kenny Lattimore asked me to join his band as a background singer for his upcoming tour. I met my husband Tim Carmon on that tour! I moved to LA when the tour ended and I’ve been working as a professional singer in LA since then.

I’ve had the great fortune of working with incredible singers who are also incredible people.One of the things I’m most proud of is the work we did on American Idol. We performed songs from different genres and we sang each style in a way that honored the genre as opposed to having it border on mimicry. We had to be versatile vocally and we had to do it live! This predates the streaming era. At the time, American Idol was one of the most popular shows on TV , it was live and we didn’t do pre records. Talk about pressure, nobody wants to mess up with tens of millions of people watching.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think a lot of people tend to gravitate towards what’s new. Whether it’s genuine curiosity or a desire to hop on a trend, people are interested in the hot, new thing. AI is the hot new thing. Professionals in many industries are trying to figure how it should and should not be used. I heard a few songs created with AI and they were great, but AI can’t get on a stage and put on a show. I hope that people won’t become so mesmerized by the technology that they become complacent about how music is created. Nothing can replace human expression, human interaction and human connection. I hope that people will always support musicians.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Music affects the psyche in such a unique and marvelous way! Music can make us dance, make us laugh, make us cry or express sentiments we can’t find the words for. Music is there when we mourn and when we celebrate.It can help make a long commute in rush hour traffic a bit more bearable. It’s so rewarding to use my voice to bring joy to people. I’m so grateful to God for my musical gift and every opportunity I get to use it.

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