"Will Miss Wilson please get down from the stage!"
Actually, she wouldn't and for the rest of her life, she'd find the way back to it. This is what Julie Wilson heard from her teachers during lunch hour in elementary school. She also heard it in church after Sunday school, and anywhere else there was a stage. Her preoccupation with theater led her to perform in plays, musicals, recitals, talent shows, open-mic nights, speech and choir competitions, dance competitions, and more. “From the age 3, 4, and 5, I can remember listening to the radio, watching American Band Stand, guests on the late shows, re-runs of the Ed Sullivan show, watching The Wizard of Oz and singing Whitney Houston song, Michael Jackson and Anita Baker, Stevie Wonder with many others in my bedroom, in the car, in the kitchen, wherever we could plug in a little radio, and I loved the bathroom's acoustics!" Theatrically, she was drawn to drama because of the stories. “I enjoyed the escape; taking people out of their lives for a moment but so that they could associate their own feelings with others through a story. It's all very human, just like we want to eat together and laugh together, we secretly enjoying feeling pain together. Drama is a safe place to do that."
Music led her feet to start moving, and since they haven’t stopped. "My body wanted to move with the music, it's like it spoke an entire language to my heart my body and my soul. When I listened to music and felt music, I would forget about all of my problems. I would forget about the fighting that went on between my parents, I would forget about being afraid, being poor, I would forget about being small, or not having as much as other kids. I could feel strong and independent and it was all about me when I was in the music. I didn't take second seat, I had a say in how the story was told to me, what I could do with this song, with this rhythm, with these emotions. It was more powerful, than I knew.”
She knew she had a love affair very young. Music served as a tool, a pedestal, her voice as an instrument. She taught herself to tap dance at age 5 on the floor of her laundry room which was 4x4 because it was the only tile floor in the house after bugging her mother for a pair of shoes. When it came to music, "I didn't really go anywhere without it. Carrying tapes around with me to friend's homes, to church, in my backpack, just holding the tape, I knew it had value. I would study the booklet, the artists and know the names and lyrics that went into this meant something. I memorized everything".
Having trained vocally with John Henny, Julie naturally became a practice junkie. "I wasn't sure about how to get there, I just knew that I had to be the best I could be all of the time and to keep searching".
She found solace in music and in singing to herself. "I first learned of great acoustics and the power of my voice through singing in my church's cathedral after service I would go into the sanctuary and sing and I loved how much bigger my voice sounded.”
Growing up in Pontiac, Michigan outside of Detroit fed her soulful connection to Motown. Trained classically in church and school choirs, honing her skills in plays and musicals and intertwined with ballet and hip hop, the former figure skater saw the saga of her life play out like a world tour. Inspired by the woman in her life,( her grandmother a jazz singer, her extended family all musical), in addition to the woman in jazz, she found her voice to find a home for her soulful voice in jazz though never straying from her love of r & b and pop. Anyone who's ever known her says there's no doubt in what she's doing, and there's no limit to how high she'll go.
