BIOGRAPHY

It’s a brand new day for songstress Sunshine Anderson.  She's entered a different space since topping the charts with her Top 5 single, “Heard It All Before,” and if you have her tell it, she's a grown woman now - one who respects love and embraces the intricate simplicity that is her life journey.  Upon a single listen of her long-awaited sophomore set, “Sunshine at Midnight,” it's evident that she's weathered her share of hardship and has come out stronger, smarter.  Here she stands, front and center, ready to sing her song.

Ten-tracks deep, “Sunshine at Midnight” (Shining Star/Music World Music) features Anderson's now-signature raspy alto backed by the production talents of Mike City, Raphael Saadiq, Warren Campbell, Walter Msilap, and Nottz, as well as Dr. Dre.  Leading the album out the gate is the mid-tempo groove, “Something I Wanna Give You,” produced by Milsap.  As she offers freedom to a lover who wasn't really worth the time, she's very serious when she asks that he grab his coat, hat and knapsack.  “A lot of people think of me as the 'anthem girl,'” Sunshine laughs, “but I really do love the brothers.  Sometimes, we just have to call them out when they're slipping.”

“My Whole Life,” produced by Nottz, centers on a woman who's ready to throw in the towel after seven years, strong, 'cause she's tired of keeping up with her wayward man - or trying to, anyway.  On “Switch It Up,” written and produced by Mike City, Sunshine summons the ladies to the dance floor to let them know that life is not a game of waiting.  When she sings, “Girl, don't be afraid to get up and go, staying at home is getting old,” you just might be inclined to get up off the sofa.  Then, she flips it on the smoothed-out track, “Wear the Crown.”  It's as if you can hear butterflies flutter in her stomach when she sings about finding a man who treats her like royalty.  Oh, and the message of “With You Baby,” a classic ballad written and co-produced by Warren Campbell (with The Flintstones) is simple - a woman in love just wants to be with her man, period.

“Problems” will touch anyone who's been stuck and wants to sit out, just for a few.  Sunshine's heartfelt delivery is proof that she's been there, felt that, and pulled herself out of the valley.  “I've definitely fought through some difficult times in my life, so I can totally relate to the mood of this song,” she says of the Dr. Dre-produced track, which she co-wrote.  “I've learned that once you have the strength to ask yourself, 'What am I going to do?' you're already on your way to seeing the light.”

It's been a minute since we've heard her voice…actually more like five years.  Back in summer '01, Sunshine Anderson ruled the airways, blessing listeners with the Mike City-produced, can't-get-it-out-of-your-held hit single, “Heard It All Before,” from her debut, “Your Woman.”  The song banged from the hair salons to the clubs, triggering her album sales to peak at 750,000 units and reach the #2 spot on Billboard's R&B Chart, #5 on the Top 200.  But not unlike many artists who sang before her, Anderson, who found a friend in manager and fellow artist, Macy Gray, seemed to slip off the radar.  After being tangled in a web of record company politics, she soon found herself without a label to call home….yet that song never went away, still hasn’t.

When asked to describe her feelings in the aftermath of being dropped, Sunshine is open and honest about the struggles she endured.  “After having such success with my first album, it was really devastating to be pushed out of industry,” she recalls.  “I took my show on the road, but over time, the crowds paid less attention to what was happening on stage.  I remember Macy telling me that I was good as long as folks didn't start walking to the bar, but eventually, my audiences got smaller and smaller.”

Having moved from her family's nest nearly a decade prior, she returned to her Charlotte, North Carolina roots to regroup and regain her footing.  “There were days that I barely had the energy to walk downstairs to pay the pizza delivery man,” she notes.  “I hung dark curtains at my windows because I needed to block everything out.  It was a difficult period, but I got through it.”

Not one to rest on her laurels for long, she packed her car and headed further south to Atlanta to get acquainted with the city's booming music scene.  By late 2005, she'd found her way to Mathew Knowles, inked a partnership with his Music World Music and so began her mission to climb back up the charts.  The rest is her music history, still in the making.

Much has changed in the music game since Anderson's reign, so where does she hope to fit in, today?  “Not to take anything away from the artists who are doing their thing right now, but I can definitely hear that there's something missing, especially in the R&B arena,” Sunshine says.  “I'm glad to be back because I want to be the one to fill that void.”

Ray of Light: 7 Questions With Sunshine Anderson

With her first single, "Heard It All Before," topping the R&B charts, Sunshine Anderson, 26, is heating up. And with some professional diva help from her manager, singer Macy Gray, the North Carolina-bred Anderson is confident her debut, Your Woman (April 17), is going to go supernova. Anderson lit it up with Rahman Dukes and described hooking up with Gray, how her name perfectly describes her personality and why you probably won't find her sweating her chart position.

Tell me how you were discovered?

Anderson: I was discovered by [producer] Mike City when I was in college at North Carolina Central University in Durham [North Carolina] I happen to be in line at the cafeteria, humming [a song] and this guy heard me and dragged me back to his dormitory and was like, 'oh my God.' He called City and City came to campus and listened to me sing. He didn't act real impressed at all [but then] he introduced me to Chris Dawley, who was then the CEO of Soulife [Entertainment]. [Then] I started going home on the weekend, holidays, spring break and to New York [to record].

How did you hook up with Macy Gray?

Anderson:- Macy Gray is my manager. She has been friends with Chris Dawley for 4-5 years and he introduced me to her. We started to hang out a lot and Macy saw some good things in me. She saw that I had a lot of potential, she loved my music, and more importantly, she saw what I was dealing with and took it upon herself to say, "hey, this is what I like to do." Macy has been in the business for a while and she knows what she is doing and [has] gone through the ups and downs. Who better to guide me with this than Macy? But more than anything, Macy is a friend and we hang out. It's not just work and boom, boom, boom.

Your single ["Heard It All Before"] is very soulful and you can tell you're singing it with a lot of feeling. Is it based on a personal experience?

Anderson: I'm still working on my writing skills. I co-wrote the songs on the album and there is one called "Crazy Love" that I wrote. I operate off of a feeling and sometimes things come out that I didn't even know I can do. [There's] no plan for it, it just happens. Sunshine is my real name [and] I really think my name has some bearing on how I feel and the things that happen in my life. Even "Heard It All Before," the second verse just talks [about] feeling kind of angry and grimy because he brought this woman to my house. When I perform it the look comes across my face, like, "what did you think you was doing?"

For a new artist, you seem to have a lot of creative control, because usually with a new artist there's a learning process...

Anderson: I can't conceive of anyone telling me "talk about this," and we're going to do your hair this way, and you are going to wear these kinds of clothes. That is just totally absurd to me. And yes, I have all the creative control, and yes I like this and I don't like this. I'm very firm in what I believe. You're getting Sunshine and if you're gonna get it, you will get the real and what I want you to have.

Does your name really describe your personality?

Anderson: I am exactly what my name says. I'm a very outgoing person. I like to laugh, I don't hold anything back. I say what is on my mind, I'm not rude, I just like to have fun. I'm a country girl – big up to all the Charlotte people – Sunshine says it all.

With all the success lately of female R&B artists, where do you think you fit in there?

Anderson: There's no expression for what I'm bringing to the table. You need sunshine for all things. You need sunshine to see, to make the plants and flowers grow. You need me and right now music is missing sunshine. I'm a very soulful singer. The conviction is in my voice, the strength. I think music is missing a sunshine and I'm ready to add a little flavor to it, bring it back to the old days like it used to be.

Do you get all caught up in the charts? What if you don't see your album in the Billboard top 10?

Anderson: No, I guess I wouldn't base my whole career on Billboard and what the charts say, because if you own the chart at all, somebody is listening. I do my music for the people, but at the same time it is for me, so whether we are #1 on the charts or don't get on there at all, somebody is listening.