Posted by | Ray Cornelius
‘R&B Divas’ star Faith Evans is gearing up for the release of the compilation album of the same name. If you have been watching the show like I have, you know that she and the other divas—Nicci Gilbert, Syleena Johnson, Keke Wyatt and Monifah—have been working really hard on this fundraising album that will benefit the Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts.
Faith recently talked to The Huffington Post about the long-awaited project, the success of the show and working on new material with Diddy. Check it out…
Evans on the album benefiting the Whitney Houston Academy…
Initially, I didn’t know what charity I wanted to support. I thought about doing Whitney’s foundation, but after some research we found out that it really wasn’t active at this moment. So a friend of mine, the singer Shareefa, was visiting my apartment in Atlanta and we were talking about it. She was like, “hey, why don’t you think about the Whitney Houston Academy?” So it was really her who gave me the idea…and given that it’s named after her, I felt like that was a great way to honor her memory. And also, support the arts and schools, which was a big part of my upbringing.
Evans on the show’s popularity…
Well, I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t expecting people to gravitate towards something that doesn’t have so much negativity. I know one thing that makes our show different is definitely the fact that there’s resolution in the drama and the craziness of it all. [Laughs] So you never know if that’s what people want to see, because other things are pretty popular. So it’s just good that people decided to tune in and continue to do so.
Evans on those rumors about Nicci Gilbert being fired from the show…
Yeah, it’s definitely just rumors, as far as I know. This was Nicci’s show before anyone else was involved. So that doesn’t make much sense to me. And as far as TV One has expressed, she still is very much a part of the cast as well as being an executive producer. I don’t really know where that came from, but people have the right to say what they want in public forums. [Laughs] So who knows where it came from.
Evans on reuniting with Diddy on future projects…
Of course! I’m pretty sure that we’ll definitely work together again. There’s been a few records that I’ve played for Puff off of my last couple of albums, since I left Bad Boy that he was ready to get on. But it just didn’t work out in time.
Click here for the full interview
Look for R&B Divas to land in stores this week, October 2.
