Blessing Offor
GRAMMY Award-Nominated Singer, Songwriter, Multi-Instrumentalist & Producer
Blessing Offor
GRAMMY Award-Nominated Singer, Songwriter, Multi-Instrumentalist & Producer
Biography
You know something’s real when you see it, but you also know it when you hear it. Over the last few years, Blessing Offor has quietly cemented himself as a GRAMMY® Award-nominated Gold-certified global phenomenon. In the middle of this rise, the Nigerian-born singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer faced a series of personal tragedies, losing his sister, and best friend and partner, and mother within the span of a year. Rather than pretend everything was okay, he chose to “take the mask off” and depict the good, the bad, and the ugly through fearless lyrics and fiery instrumentation. By going under these bruises, he found the rawest kind of inspiration by living through a season of major loss, taking the lessons learned, and writing songs from a place of newfound understanding. Absorbing wisdom from all of these experiences, he delivers his honest, hard-hitting, and heartfelt second full-length album, Real.
He’s not just telling the truth, though; he’s singing his loudly.
“I think it’s insincere to only tell everyone how good things are,” says Offor. “On one hand, I was succeeding wildly. On the other, I was hurting deeply. We have songs that could meet you anywhere. If you’re sitting down for breakfast on a Sunday, we got you. If you’re talking about difficult subjects with your spouse, we got you. Loss or grief, we got you. More than anything, it’s a life record.”
It's also as Real as the title suggests. The music reflects his proficiency as a live vocalist and pianist. The lyrics are “lived-in” and drawn directly from what he’s gone through. In between writing Real, his sister and best friend and partner Annie passed, as did his mother. Directly addressing the latter, Blessing penned the single and album standout “Crying Out Loud” for his mom. A bright piano melody belies the intensity of the lyrics. You can hear him take a breath in between delivering lines like, “Phone rings, already somehow, something’s ‘bout to come crashing down and nothing’s gonna be the same.” A steady beat kicks in, and he overpowers the pain with a cathartic chorus, “Here I am, crying out loud, tears like rain come pouring out.” He consciously preserved the imperfections of the moment and crafted the perfect tribute to his mother.
“As a man, crying seems almost subversive,” he says. “At my mom’s funeral, my brothers and I had our arms around each other crying. This guy said to us, ‘It's not the time for that. Get it together.’ I yelled, Are you really telling us not to cry at our mom’s funeral?!’ This love, tragedy, and loss is big enough to cry over. It’s pulled from every feeling I had about my mom.”
Elsewhere on “Carry On,” intimate verses give way to a shuffling groove on the hook, “It’s crazy that you’re gone and everything is wrong…We’re just trying to move along the best we can without you.” It offers an homage to his best friend and partner Annie who is immortalized with the inclusion of her voice on the track.
“I don't know anyone who has loved me as purely as Annie did,” he sighs. “She would call me just to make sure I got home. This song is the realest thing I could ever write about her. It's not depressing because she wasn't depressing. There was no better way to end the song than to put her voice on it.”
Delicately plucked acoustic guitar underlines a soulful cadence on “Where My Feet Are.” The track swings into a galloping groove punctuated by shakers and fleet-fingered flamenco-style picking, horns, and a soaring refrain as he proclaims, “I just wanna be where my feet are.” Fittingly, he capped off the song with a recording of his father preaching in their hometown church in Nigeria.
“When I went back to Nigeria and found myself at the first church I’d ever gone to, I thought, ‘This is where my feet are right now,’” he smiles. “That's where this all started. There isn’t a way to be somewhere other than where your feet are, yet, we manage to find ourselves behind, ahead, or way to the right or to the left. The song is a message to yourself, ‘Be where you are and be okay about it. In fact, be joyful about it.’”
On the title track “Real,” a bassline thumps softly behind pensive intonation. Blessing wonders, “Can you tell me how you keep your heart so…real?” He notes, “Lyrically, it represents the feeling of finding this person who is so real in contrast to everything else in the world.”
Lightly strummed chords brush up against his voice on “The Time It Takes.” He assures, “Whatever it is that you are going through, I’ll be right there next to you.”
“I love making unpredictable music,” he grins. “‘The Time It Takes’ has a folk-soul energy. You could sing it to yourself in the living room with a guitar.”
Then, there’s “Oh Child.” The tune layers an upbeat and undeniably catchy vocal atop claps and head-nodding percussion. “‘Child’ can be such a comforting word,” he muses. “It doesn't necessarily mean ‘kid.’ An adult can be a ‘child’ too. It’s all how you say it.”
“What Tomorrow’s For” allows faint cracks of light to pierce the darkness as his hard-earned optimism bleeds through the refrain with a reminder, “If today wasn’t all you want and more, that’s what tomorrow’s for.”
“The song answers a question that you didn't quite know you needed answered,” he adds. “If today wasn't the best thing in the world, there is another day.”
Born blind in his left eye, Blessing immigrated from Nigeria to the U.S. at six-years-old in the hope of salvaging the vision in his right eye, which had perfect vision. As fate would have it, a water gun incident detached his retina when the summer before fourth grade and eventually left him lacking functional vision in a matter of four years. Prior, he had begun to develop prodigious piano chops, going on to further hone his talents with the help of teachers throughout school in Connecticut and continuing during his time at Belmont University. In 2022, he introduced his solo artistry with Brighter Days EP, yielding fan favorites the Gold-certified “Brighter Days” and “Believe.” He reached critical mass with My Tribe, notching a Top 20 debut on the Billboard Top Christian/Gospel Albums Chart and garnering GRAMMY® Award nods in the categories of “Best Contemporary Christian Music Album” and “Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song” for “Believe.” Plus, he emerged as the rare phenomenon equally comfortable on a track with either Dolly Parton, Lauren Daigle, Chis Tomlin, or TobyMac. Beyond touring with Daigle and Maverick City Music, he shined at CMA Fest and Stagecoach.
In the end though, Blessing is proudly presenting who he is on Real. “When you’re real, it makes it okay for other people to be real,” he concludes. “I’m showing my heart and who I am on this record. It’s like holding up a mirror, because sometimes people see themselves in it and they feel better. To me, there’s nothing better.”
Speech Topics
An Evening with Blessing Offor
Sure to be a best-selling artist, Offor will wow your audience just like he did on television’s best music reality show, The Voice. His first performance on the show had Adam Levine, Pharrell Williams, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton all clamoring to coach him. His charisma, music and rich voice will make him the talk of the town, while his personal story of overcoming adversity will inspire and warm the soul.
The Blessing of Education
Offor is a living testament to the tenacity of teaching. In Nigeria, his society wasn’t able to see past his partial blindness, as they assumed mental deficiencies always accompanied physical limitations. In America, Offor benefited from some teachers who supported him academically and musically. After testing into the gifted and talented track in NYC, Offor was accepted into an arts magnet school. He then went on to attended Belmont University in Nashville, where he learned from teachers such as Joe Wooten and other songwriting mentors. He considers himself quite lucky to have had the support of the educators who saw his potential, and now passes on his inspirational story in this uplifting talk.
Listen to the Music in You: Overcoming Adversity
For most people, life is challenging enough. For those afflicted with blindness, it’s a whole different universe. In this presentation, Offor speaks about his experience overcoming the hurdle that would be insurmountable for some. “While most eleven-year-olds were figuring out which basketball player they wanted to be when they grew up, I had to learn the true definition of who I was. Right around this time, we got a piano in the house, and all the energy that I had used to play basketball and run around went into music.” Offor considered his impairment an enhancement; his other senses were heightened when he lost his sight. During this talk, he reveals how he got through the toughest moments of his life, what he learned and how he flourished by focusing on music, education and hope.
Blessing Offor, African American
Due to necessity, Offor crossed an ocean as a young child and grew up in a completely different culture from the one he knew in Africa. Although he left Nigeria nearly 20 years ago, he still knows where he comes from. Offor is currently in production on a documentary about his extraordinary life; he hopes that the film will bring him back home for a very special performance in Nigeria. In this presentation, he discusses the importance of remaining true to oneself while maintaining cultural heritage and family ties.
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