Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Martha Wash

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: 

Martha Wash

In my own personal big gay church, there is a wing festooned with disco balls, strobes and a pulsing dancefloor. Here reign the Divas of the Dancefloor; a rare cultural phenomena somewhat confined to the clubs. Their siren calls beckon you forth, bewitching you with soulful sounds and inspirational words, causing your body to gyrate as if taken by a spirit. Theirs is the world of house - and by house, I mean, these ladies know how to take you to church, son. With their voices we soar and are liberated from gravity's and reality's pull.

One such diva?

Martha Wash.

The Queen of Clubland.

With a voice forged from storm clouds and the sweetest of rain, she uses her powers to inspire and uplift.

Long a friend of the LGBTQ Community, the two have traveled similar roads of discrimination and ostracization. 

If being 'different' kept her from being seated at the head table, you needn't have feared - the girl can be heard from all the way in the back row. 

And whatever she was given? She served it up hot and fresh. And there was no mistaking just who was doing the dishing.

The music business tried to do her wrong, but she turned the tables on them, writing her own ending to a saga which had turned out very differently for others. Yes. She got hers. 

To this day, she continues to share the love. 

And gay clubs are all the better for her glittering gifts of song.

The gospel according to her?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips.

The topic? Voice Appropriation

"Sylvester had this high falsetto voice and I’m watching him and saying, ‘Oh my God, who is this guy?' The entire audition lasted five minutes. There were two skinny white girls that auditioned for him a few minutes before I walked in. I sang a gospel song for him and he tells the other two girls to leave and says, ‘Okay, I’d like to hire you. Do you know someone that is larger than you that can sing?'"

"I never really thought about it at the time. But years later, having conversations with interviewers, it made me think, There really weren’t any women our size on the scene. I was just starting out in the business and was just happy to get a gig. You couldn’t miss us. We were large women, okay? Some people called us a novelty act at the time. But the novel thing about us is that we could sing."

"I was in Europe and started getting phone calls about it. People wanted interviews with me, but it wasn’t for the Weather Girls. It was for me. That’s when I started realizing that the song was out (Gonna Make You Sweat) and people had questions. I listened to the song and said, ‘What’s going on? Okay, that’s me, but why am I in there under C+C Music Factory?'"

"I didn’t necessarily allow it to happen. You could be in the business a long time and still get screwed. It all depends on who’s doing it and how it’s done. I think the labels were caught with their pants down and just weren’t ready for this. I also believe that the record company had a big responsibility as well. It was making money and they were going to keep that thing moving."

"You can’t live in the past and mistakes were possibly made on both sides. I even went on the road with them (C+C Music Factory)... Some people hold grudges for decades and I don’t understand that. You just got to keep it moving."

It's Raining Men - The Weather Girls

Carry On - Martha Wash

I'm Not Coming Down - Martha Wash

(Tony Moran & Deep Influence Club Mix)

And one last parting shot...

"Time has passed and I’m at the point now where it doesn’t bother me. I’m still here. I had the knock upside the head a few times, but I wouldn’t change it for anything because it’s helped me be who I am. You got to go through those tough and unpleasant times where you wish you could go somewhere inside, but it shows you how you can be strong and okay. Your head hurts now, but later, you can say, ‘I lived through it.'"