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Ten years ago, at the pinnacle of her career, multiple Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, Anita Baker, gave it up to raise her two sons and care for sick relatives.
My reasons for listening to Baker were purely self-centered at first. I acquired a taste for her jazzy style of singing only after many people, including members of my own family, said I resembled her. (No vocal resemblance!)
Baker has returned to performing, but on a very limited schedule. She works a couple of days a week and will be taking her kids on tour with her. I suppose it isn’t much of a sacrifice for a wealthy entertainer to work this way.
Still, I’m always fascinated by women who give up careers, rewarding or not, to focus on others, namely their own children. My mother raised the four of us (2 sisters, 1 brother) herself, and my warmest childhood memories were of having her around when I left for school and when I returned home. If I had to leave school early, I could call home and ask her to pick me up, and I wouldn’t have to wait until she could leave work. Today she’d be called a “stay at home mother.”
I digress again. I was researching a different subject when I found this article about Baker’s comeback:
The queen of eighties romantic R&B had been walking on emotional eggshells all day before the show. She didn’t rehearse much with her band. She had left that to her musical partner Barry Eastmond, whom she had worked with on her 1994 single I Apologize.It wasn’t just her mother’s death that was weighing on her as she took the stage. Baker had quit the limelight at the height of her career in 1994 and went into a period of semi-retirement in order to raise her sons and take care of her ailing parents. After her mother died, the urge to perform came rushing back. She needed a release.
My favorite song is “No One in the World.” Do you know the tune? Sing a few bars with me:
I look back on all those good times
we once shared and I must have been blind
just to think I find someone new
one who loved me better than you
well it may come as a surprise
loneliness has opened my eyes
I’ve tried every road I could find
still I can’t get you out of my mind‘Cause there’s no one in the world to hold me
no one in the world can to move me
no one in the world can love me like you do baby
every time I’m with someone
loving you I just want to run
I wanna run back to your arms again
there’s no one in the world (no one in the world)
loves me like you do
I love that song. More Anita Baker news: Washington Post — “Anita Baker, Quietly Storming Back”, FOXNews.com — “Anita Baker Back After 10-Year Hiatus”, Billboard.com — “Anita Baker Inks With Blue Note”, Toronto Star — “Anita Baker gets reacquainted with spotlight: Took 10 years off to care for her family.”
Addendum: A commenter mentions Sade, one of my other favorite jazzy singers. This is her official site, which may be too high-resolution (or whatever the term is) for some computers.
