Bold, Witty, and Legendary: A Conversation with Broadway Performer, & Tony Award Winning Singer, Melba Moore

This is the third interview with captivating soloist, Melba Moore. The singer rose to fame in the early 70’s as a Broadway performer. She always wanted to sing R&B but didn’t have a soulful voice.

“I had what felt like a lack,” Melba thought back to the timeframe of being in her late twenties when she when her voice wasn’t as developed. “I kept working on it, and it grew, and eventually I had that, and something else.

My voice was very small. I wanted to sing R&B and Gospel music, but my natural ability was lyric soprano, and classical music; but you can’t get hits like that; so, I wanted to holler too. I liked to swim and do a lot of calisthenics. I took dance class. I did a lot of things and built up my physical stamina. I was a vocal major, so I studied voice and other people’s techniques, and what evolves is that you start developing your own techniques, and you increasingly get better, and eventually you get better.”

One day Melba decided that she could carry a note for an extended time, and that landed her into the genre of R&B.

“At least right now, I can say, I have hit records, and I can sing R&B. I got Grammy Award nominations.”

Melba centered her talents around Broadway, and in 1968, she acted as lead performer in the Musical Hair. In 1970 Melba won a Tony Award for Best Performance in the Ossie Davis production of Purlie. By 1978, she cast in Geoffrey Holders production of Timbuktu. Melba Moore co-starred next to her real life love interest, Clifton Davis in a tv show, and that led to the performance Look What You’re Doing to the Man.

Melba went on to score with her breakout album Peach Melba (Buddah Records), and landed in the Billboard top 1OO with single, This is It. She received a Grammy nomination for Lean on Me, originally recorded by Vivian Reed. In 1979, Melba released a string of hits like You Stepped into My Life, produced by McFadden and Whitehead although her most notable songs are from the 80’s like Love’s Comin at Ya, Livin for Your Love, Love Me Right, and Falling, with Freddy Jackson, to name a few songs.

Melba keeps redefining what success looks, and feels like, by stepping into long awaited victories finally fulfilled.

Melba was honored at the Atlantic City Walk of Fame on April 27, 2026. If that isn’t exciting enough, Melba is hitting the stage again at 54 Below for Black Music Month to perform her sold-out show, “From Broadway With Love.”  

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Melba was small in stature, but her voice shook ceilings, and the floors of crowded rooms. She was known as the only singer with the longest octave, and she has carried that note till now. She speaks softly with subtle animations, while answering questions that graze over five decades of her career. It’s noticeable that this woman lived an eventful life, but she never fully reaches the parts of the discussion that sketches who she is as a woman that has survived and rebelled against the test of time.

One thing about Melba Moore that she’s always setting fashionable trends.

During the interview, she wore a small brim that covered her signature pixie haircut. Her face was beat with the best makeup, but not too much— and by beat, this means glazed with perfection.

Melba dressed cute and casual like a schoolteacher for the sit down… Her aura is that of a mom, Broadway star, Tony Award winner and conqueror…

Sometimes, speaking to luminaries that have performed around the world longer than you’ve been born, allows for depth in the conversation. It gives the storyteller the opportunity to unveil fragments of their life. There’s so much to share, and maybe it’s the same information, but hopefully more insight than before.

Melba says that stars always talk about the positives to their life during interviews, like the journey was easy, and everything fell in line; but, it’s not easy. In fact, she wrote a memoir, “This is it—Marvelous and Getting Better. She penned with honesty about her 50 year deposits into the music industry. It was anything but easy, because even she understands the toll that quiet defeats have on you, your mind, and spirit…

“With the book, I get a chance to tell some of the other details that are always left out when your message is just the headlines—That’s not a complaint of course, and it’s not a problem. It’s a privilege to be open a little bit and say some of the things I haven’t. As far as people who are fan, they know about me. They know about my downfalls. So, it’s not like everything happened without any incidences. They know that didn’t happen, so I don’t think they don’t know me. I think they do know me.”

Melba has always been outspoken about her rise in the industry, and her letdowns through the years, especially in the 90’s when she lost it all, and how she worked to get back into position as a singer. Her legacy meant more than having prideful failures made public. Melba wrote in the book, that she didn’t just hit rock bottom, it happened a second time too…

“I’m broke, busted, and disgusted,” she chuckled at her pain. “This happened to me before; it shouldn’t be happening to me again. I’m telling this story all over again. During that time, it happened, and I talked about the most difficult times in the book; the book doesn’t only talk about that. I gotta think about my daughter. I got to thinking about the repercussions that it might have on her. I wanna tell the truth, and some of it, I’ve already told before, but the people are still around. I’m not really interested in getting revenge or hurting them, and that’s difficult sometimes. First, I wanna tell my truth, but second of all, I really don’t want to drag back into the messes again. And, lastly, when I think about it, in all the hurt that’s a distance, I don’t wanna hurt them anymore.”

Melba said we are in another era, just like the astronauts that circled the moon on April 6th, 2026.

“This is my first book, so I’ve entered that era, and what that means when you document anything, you’re responsible in a way that you weren’t before; so, those of us who are in my timeline, must mature. We find it difficult sometimes when things are going really, really well, just for time to stand still right where it is. If you had any heartbreak in real situations and most of us had, or they happened to people we care about, we must think about those things.

I find sometimes we are in a capsule, because we don’t want to hurt anymore. It’s not that you’re a mean person and you don’t care. You want some peace, you want some tranquility, you want some joy, you want some stability, and I think we really must realize, we are not in this by ourselves. We must prioritize other people’s real concerns.

As mature artists, if I’m going to appeal to people, and bring them new music, I must know where I am, and where they are, and where everybody is so I can be relevant. I gave them the new rocket because they aren’t even going to the moon yet. They are just circling the moon. It’s an idea of what it really takes to live a life that you want. You’re not by yourself and it requires a lot. If you have a clue of that, you’re responsible and you can’t just act like you don’t know anymore."

Melba considers this part of her life a rebirth where she hasn’t relied totally on herself for the last twenty years. She understands that nothing is by luck, and she’s finally found the pattern to obtain success, and keep the momentum going.

Melba Moore received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame August, 2023. It’s a moment that she describes as surreal.

“It wasn’t something I was dreaming about or thinking about. I kind of lost touch with that part of entertainment so I really had no conscious connection to it but thank goodness I have a good manager, and he was thinking about it. Recognition is important, and it’s permanent and it’s going to be there. Of course, it’s one of the highest honors that you can get so I need to pay attention to something a little better than I had. It’s surreal because it’s there, and I’m thrust into it. I really didn’t do this because after you earn it, and it costs many thousands of dollars. I don’t think if it was up to me, I would’ve wanted to spend my money like that,” she laughed.

Although Melba didn’t see the need to spend the money, she was honored that the comedian Kat Williams sponsored her star on the walk of fame, and that honor brought out beautiful thespians and fellow stars to speak on her behalf like Tisha Campbell. The accomplishment is a new reality for Melba, a megastar that’s hit rock bottom as much as she’s been successful. She finally received her flowers just for the longevity and talents that she’s leant to the fans close to six decades.

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Melba said that this journey of hers is spiritual. She’s Catholic religion, now. Either way, God is working, and she is seeing the rewards from God because of her relationship with Him.

“I’ve had fifty years in this industry and I’m being rewarded. I have new music up, and I’m renewed. When we become a part of Easter, we’re not just becoming a part of renewal and repair, we become a part of reality, of the actual raising of ourselves in some fashion or way, from the dead. So, that’s what I’m expecting. I’m expecting that it’s going to continue to be what people see, not something that I just believe. I think that’s pretty awesome.”

In that statement, Melba described her journey as "Corinthians 2 5:17, 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Melba is recharged with new music, produced by her daughter Charlie.

“We’re finished with the next album already. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to call it the rhythm of life or love wins every time. We have some incredible songs that she has found for me that I wouldn’t even think of doing. Music has changed, but it hasn’t changed. It’s expressed how God expresses it now, and not just with the new generations. If older people are like me, they’ll be able to express themselves. It’s you but, it’s now. But the music is so beautiful. I guess it’s sweeter and more peaceful because I’ve had so many victories. I can stand here in my own skin. I’ve written some songs, but I’m not a songwriter. I’ve always been accustomed to people bringing me songs. I am accustomed to the new song writers and producers, bringing music for me to consider; so, that hasn’t changed. I could evolve until I die.”

Melba recently shared a reel, where her song played softly in the background of Lady Sings the Blues. She shared a photo, easily considered a collector’s item of her standing next to a younger Michal Jackson possibly while he was still with the Jackson 5. The photo was taken after her performance in Timbuktu. Melba soared through decades of entertainment, having special moments that are still talked about.

These are relevant keepsakes and gems. This is history that she helped to shape, the heritage of Black entertainment.

The conversation with Melba is easily one of the most enthralling when you think about the incredible moments, and milestones that she achieved as an entertainer who’s still talked about till this day. Melba wants the discussions to continue.

“Life is difficult. It’s hard work. There is nothing more valuable (than life), so find out what’s valuable to you. You don’t necessarily have to know that but go on the search. I want people to know that I was always inquisitive. I was always open. I was always ready to believe it even though it’s difficult to start again. Even if I must restart every day, I want people to remember that I never gave up.”

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