Published By:
Lamont Jack Pearley
On This episode I speak to Blues Legacy Shemekia Copeland.
Shemekia Copeland was born in Harlem, New York on April 10, 1979, and came to her singing career naturally. Her bluesman father recognized his daughter’s talent early on. He always encouraged her to sing at home and even brought her on stage to sing at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club when she was just eight. At that time Shemekia’s embarrassment outweighed her desire to sing. But when she was 15, and her father’s health began to slow him down, she received the calling. “It was like a switch went off in my head,” recalls Shemekia, “and I wanted to sing. It became a want and a need. I had to do it.
At 16, Shemekia joined her father on his tours after he was diagnosed with a degenerative heart condition. Soon enough Shemekia was opening, and sometimes even stealing, her father’s shows.
