AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Jenifer Lewis

Artist:Jenifer Lewis

Song:Dig a Little Deeper

Album:The Princess and the Frog: Original Songs and Score

Actress Jenifer Lewis is known as The Mother of Black Hollywood because of the many times she has played mothers in films and TV. It is also the title of her memoir. She sings but singing has not been a big part of her career. She's never recorded an album. But she has toured as a backup singer. This appearance in the 2009 Disney film The Princess and the Frog is supposed to be New Orleans flavored. So it has a mostly black cast. Dig a Little Deeper is her big song in the film. She was born Jan. 25, 1957 in the St. Louis suburb of Kinloch, MO. She sang in the church choir as a child. She moved to New York in the late 70s. After appearing in the Broadway show Eubie, Jenifer played Effie White when Dreamgirls was in the early stages. When Michael Bennett moved Dreamgirls to Broadway, Jenifer was replaced by Jennifer Holiday. Jenifer became a Harlette, Bette Midler's backup singers. She toured with Bette and appeared in the 1988 film Beaches. She also performed in New York clubs. Jenifer moved to Los Angeles in the early 90s. She did mostly guest shots on sitcoms. She was a regular on the final season of A Different World. And she played Will Smith's Aunt Helen in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Jenifer was one of Whoopie Goldberg's backup singers in the 1992 film Sister Act. She played Tupac Shakur's mother in the 1993 film Poetic Justice and Tina Turner's mother in What's Love Got To Do With It despite the fact that Jenifer is only one year older than Angela Bassett. So mostly Jenifer has played mothers for most of her career. After appearing as Flo in the 2006 Pixar film Cars and in the 2008 Broadway production of Hairspray, Jennifer was cast as Mama Odie in the 2009 Disney film The Princess and the Frog. This was the first Disney animated film with a mainly black cast. Randy Newman composed the score and wrote all the songs. Dig a Little Deeper is Jenifer's one song in the film. The choir is credited as Pinnacle Gospel Choir but it looks like it was put together for the film. This album is available as a budget CD. Jenifer also appears on the spinoff album Bayou Blast. Jenifer continues to appear on films and TV. She does a lot of voice work. She wrote her memoir in 2017. Here's Jenifer Lewis performing Dig a Little Deeper in the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog.