Check Out Gina Williams’s Story

Gina, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story begins as a child on the prairie – playing with garden snakes, chewing wheat until it turned into gum,  playing in abandoned grain elevators with other local boys that I didn’t know – until a farmer told us all to  ‘never play here again’ – pointing to the sharp blade that was suspended so high in the air we didn’t even see it.

Apart from family, I felt alone.  And I was painfully aware that I didn’t look like everyone else around me.  You see the year before, when I was 4, my playmate announced that her mother said that she couldn’t play with me anymore. “Why?” I asked.  We had been playing together for what felt like forever.  “Because you’re a n**ger.”  “What’s that?” I asked her.  “I don’t know,” she said sorrowfully.  After moving back to the city when I was 6, when a group of teenage boys screamed “Go back to Africa”, with the n word, spewing expletives, eventually spitting and laughing in my face, I understood it was me….

Growing up in a spiritual family, I was acquainted with the concept of forgiveness and immediately though about Jesus and His executioners.  Facing the boys I said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they’re doing.”  One by one they left.

That was one of the defining moments in my life.  I wanted people to be free from bigotry – to be able to see people – and not the colour of skin or the shape of their eyes, or anything.  That deep desire found its way into my life as a performing and recording artist.  For people to hear me without the prejudice or bias of what I “should be or sound like” based on ‘what they see’.

So I’m instinctively drawn to things that are different or haven’t been done quite like that before.  But there is a catch…

For as long as I can remember, I hear finished music (melodies, harmonies, horns, the full enchilada) in my head. I felt it was only right to not keep this music to myself, and I would try to let others hear the songs and the moving parts and exclaim, “Can you hear it?”  Every time they’d smile and shake their head saying, “No.”

So it was my dream for people to hear it one day and the dream to become a Recording Artist was in full bloom.  Even though I just wanted to be a singer, I was determined to share as much variety with the world as humanly possible.

I told my mom that I wanted to be a singer and that didn’t make her happy. So I shelved the dream.

She asked me if I wanted piano lessons and I was more than happy for them.  I practiced on the window sill until we got a piano when I was around 11.  I loved being able to hear the harmonies to the songs that lived in my mind.  I practiced my pieces faithfully and would sing my songs when I was ’finished.’  But the family only wanted me to keep playing even though I dearly wanted to sing….

So I kept playing and would eventually obtain a Master’s Degree In Piano Performance.

It was around this time in my life when I would experience my first heart break.  And the others genres, especially Rock showed up in full gale force.

After having a real heart to heart talk with myself, I knew I was going to emerge as a Multi Genre Artist – not the Gospel or Christian Contemporary Artist I thought I would become.

With no album on the horizon yet – I found my vocal coach in LA.  I would spend the next 7 years trying so hard to catch up and learn as much as I could about the voice.  I was already singing in the different churches but I had to back away from engagements because the voice was changing….

My family was terrified and perplexed. They felt I had abandoned my career as a pianist and now my voice was going.  I kept going to LA once a year on Greyhound in faith that something would break through….

Finally by 2007, I released “In Spite Of The Storm.” Each track representing a different storm in our lives by shifting genres. Not understanding that marketing was also needed, the album didn’t go very far and I was crushed.

Feeling like it was over for me I was depressed.

One day it suddenly occurred to me, I keep hearing music so why should I stop?

With an ounce of courage, I started to put my heart in my music and performances again.

I braved the criticisms of not sticking to one genre.  And I tried, many times, to figure out which one to abandon

and I couldn’t do it.

So I buckled down and worked – harder. To really showcase each child (or genre) with the love and respect each one needs.

By 2016, I had this strange impression that I needed to release a Choral/Symphonic album.

I thought, “Whaaaat?”

Who’s going to buy an Orchestral album that sounds like something straight out of the 17th and 18th centuries from a Black woman in this day and age??

Then the thought came, “You’re running away from something that makes you interesting. Then everything else will come together.”

And that was it. Just like that.

So I spent the next part of that year into 2017 scoring and sending files off to Ukraine. I had friends there were encouraging me to go and do production there. And that frankly, “They get me like no one else could”.

I resisted it but when you are called to go you go right??

So I flew into Kyiv in 2017 and when I landed, I bawled like a baby – I knew I was home. And that’s another story thanks to my Ukrainian grandmother (бабуся) – my mom’s friend that had predicted that I would be going to Ukraine when I was an early teen and her love for me spilled over into my music career…

In spite of the language barrier – everyone there seemed to understand me and what I truly wanted. They were not trying to make my music into something I don’t hear – which happens more often than not. But fortunately, with acoustic instruments a violin is a violin, so nothing gets shifted since people are simply playing my notes! It’s easy for people to change or modify a chart. But most don’t mess around with a score.

So the album “Olympiad” was born late 2017 and 5 more albums – each in a different genre: Classical, Gospel, Pop, EDM, and Rock – in consecutive monthly order in 2021. It was my response to the political climate at the time – that we all have the ability to think ‘outside the box’ and to be open to others if we are willing.

Today I am a multi-genre singer, songwriter, pianist, orchestral composer, and film and television actress. I have performed and/or written in 11 languages: English, French, Punjabi, Spanish, Italian, Latin, German, Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish, and Mandarin. I perform and produce in 27 subgenres of music.

Today I have also released 11 studio albums – some which are available for streaming and others are not. This is what I do for a living and I cherish my fans who directly support my work – so I can create more! And believe me, there is A LOT more to release!

For taking the time to read my story, I would to say thank you by gifting you some of this music.

Just email me at gina@ginawilliams.com and I’d be happy to share with you my Award Winning Symphonic music, Rock music, Solo Piano music, or all of them! Just let me know at the Wishlist, and I hope this music will touch your heart.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been smooth or easy in retrospect.  I wouldn’t wish my experiences on anyone. But I am doing my best to help make racism a ‘thing of the past.’  I know we can’t change people, but love truly conquers all.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I’d like to encourage you to “Trust the still small voice in your heart”.

Although people sometimes have good intentions, it may not be best for you.  You may get a lot of criticisms and set backs but if that desire or dream refuses to go away, and it is something that can bring joy to others, pursue it with all your strength.  If you are spritually inclined, pursue it prayer and humility – together they make a secret weapon for success.

Easy doesn’t always mean correct.  A lot of people look for what ‘feels right’ or ‘comes easy’.

It takes being carved out of the comfortable, pressure and heat, and the unfamiliar feel of polishing that needs to take place

before you can shine bright like a diamond.