TheReelNetwork.net
By Joshua D Copeland
Posted June 15th 2015
Jennifer Holliday will always be remembered for her iconic performance as Effie in 1980’s Dreamgirls. In her most memorable Grammy-winner “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Goin’” she was the one who demanded we were gonna love her, and since then we’ve never stopped.
Jennifer Holliday was born October 19, 1960 in Riverside Texas. Most of her glory days consisted of her legendary performances on Broadway. She is not only a Grammy Award winner, but is also a Tony Award-winning actress.
Before she landed a spot on Dreamgirls, her first big role was when she auditioned for the Broadway production “Your Arms Too Short to Box with God” back in 1979. Her debut performance earned her a Drama Desk nomination in 1981. It was that same year that she would land the role that we would all remember her for as Effie Melody White in the Dreamgirls musical. She would remain with the show for 4 years after it’s opening on December 20, 1981. Her glorified performance of “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” is at the end of Act I, and has been critically acclaimed as the performance that shaped her career.
Holliday would then sweep the Grammys with awards, including a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, and a Grammy award for the recorded version of the song in 1982. She also received Drama Desk and Theater World awards for her acting performance.
The success Holliday found in her professional life didn’t spill over into her personal life. Her first marriage in ’91 to keyboardist Billy Meadows lasted only nine months after it “ran out of steam” according to Holliday. But the singer didn’t give up on finding true love and thought she found it two years later in Reverend Andre Woods. Holliday says after she married him, she found out he was a “player who ran through her money”. Just as Holliday was ending that second marriage, her mother died of cancer. Holliday says of that dark time in her life, “It was like experiencing two deaths at the same time. The grief was overwhelming”.
Holliday’s emotional problems were compounded by health concerns which began to emerge from her weight problems. The singer says that at her heaviest she became so depressed she tried to take her own life: “…I tried to commit suicide on my 30th birthday. I blamed everything on my weight because my record company dropped me.” Holliday underwent gastric bypass surgery and went from 400 pounds to a much healthier, slimmer physique.
Holliday then reclaimed her life and career. TV appearances like “Touched by an Angel” and “Ally McBeal” offered the chance to sing and act. But singing has always been her first love; in 1998, she was featured on an album, My Favorite Broadway Ladies and was named as one of The Queens of Broadway.”
Holliday will always hold the raised bar for the brimming talent that awaits Broadway. Especially when it comes to surviving her role as Effie from Dreamgirls. Check out her legendary performance below!