Since Sony announced H. E. R. mysteriously in 2016, the singer born Gabi Wilson has become a rising R&B star while revealing little about herself.<\/b>
\nWhen Gabi Wilson is H. E. R. \u2014 her R&B singer stage name \u2014 she is usually rocking big hair and big sunglasses, rarely showing her full face to her fans.
The point is to give the public one simple thing to focus on: the music.
Other days, her hair is pulled into a ponytail or a bun, and her face is clear. Like the time she was being driven in an Uber with a friend when \u201cBest Part,\u201d her Top 5 R&B hit, came on the radio.
\u201cI love that song \u2018Best Part,\u2019 \u201d H. E. R. recalls the driver, a man in his 60s, saying. \u201cIt reminds me of my wife.\u201d
\u201cI wanted to cry,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was so special.\u201d
That anonymity proved two things for the singer: Her choice to release music without giving too much detail about her life worked. And her fan base isn\u2019t just teenagers \u2014 R&B purists love her, too.
Since Sony\u2019s RCA Records announced H. E. R. mysteriously in 2016, she has become a rising R&B star.
Songs like \u201cBest Part,\u201d \u201dFocus\u201d and \u201cLosing\u201d perfectly blend the alternative R&B sound that\u2019s popular today with the traditional R&B sound that some feel is missing from the contemporary music scene.
Her first two EPs \u2014 \u201cH. E. R., Vol. 1\u201d and \u201cH. E. R., Vol. 2\u201d \u2014 gave her an immediate fan base won over by the honest lyrics and vibey melodies, as she sang about complicated relationships and love lapses. Most people probably wouldn\u2019t realize from hearing the music that she turned 21 just months ago.
\u201cThe way that I released the music did exactly what I wanted it to, which was make people just listen to the music,\u201d says H. E. R., which stands for \u201cHaving Everything Revealed.\u201d \u201dJust listen to the message for what it is because we tend to listen with our eyes sometimes.\u2026 I don\u2019t want people to love my music because of what I look like or who I know or whatever.
\u201cI feel like maybe some people wouldn\u2019t have accepted the music if they knew I was 19,\u201d says H. E. R., who was that age when her first EP dropped. \u201cSome people, they make these assumptions before they even listen to the music.\u201d
\u201cVol. 1\u201d was named iTunes\u2019 R&B album of 2016. She earned a nomination for best new artist at the 2017 Soul Train Awards.
This year, she reached the Top 10 of the R&B charts with \u201cCould\u2019ve Been,\u201d the gold-selling \u201cFocus\u201d and the platinum hit \u201cBest Part,\u201d a duet with Daniel Caesar. She has seven nominations for the upcoming Soul Train Awards, making her the most-nominated act. She opened on the road for Chris Brown and is launching her second headlining tour.
She\u2019s Apple Music\u2019s latest \u201cUp Next\u201d artist, ranking sixth among R&B acts on the streaming platform. Her success has been so major that a male singer has copied her likeness and released songs under the name H. I. M.
H. E. R. grew up in the San Francisco Bay area to a black father and Filipino mother. She was introduced to the public as a piano prodigy at 10, appearing on the \u201cToday\u201d show and covering Alicia Keys\u2019 music.
She was signed by Sony at 14 and says that although she wanted to release music at times \u2014 she did try with the song \u201cSomething to Prove\u201d in 2014 under Gabi Wilson \u2014 she appreciates the time she had to develop as an artist and to work on songwriting and grow as a pianist, drummer and guitar (she plays electric, acoustic and bass guitar).
Keys, who met H. E. R. over a decade ago, had similar beginnings: She was signed as a teenager and didn\u2019t release her first song, the No. 1 hit \u201cFallin\u2019,\u201d until she was 20 in 2001.
\u201cI saw H. E. R. developing as an artist, and she really had this thing about her that was so exciting because it was such serious musicianship,\u201d says Keys. \u201cAnd then fast-forwarding now, X amount years later, to where she is now and seeing that all come together, I think the beauty of that is the fact that she was really able to take her time and be an artist and develop and be a young girl. Her eyes and her destiny have always been on this place and needed to land in this world. And it\u2019s only going to get brighter, bigger and better.\u201d
This year, H. E. R. released her second pair of EPs, titled \u201cI Used to Know Her\u201d parts 1 and 2. A full album is expected next year.
She is even starting to reveal more of herself: In the music video for \u201cCould\u2019ve Been,\u201d you can see her face.
\u201cAt this point, even if you see my face or know who I am, it doesn\u2019t matter because you already love the music,\u201d H. E. R. says.<\/p>\n

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