Gospel Spotlight: Tiffany Hall eyes mainstream market

Gospel singer Tiffany Hall is eyeing the mainstream market in her quest to become a household name.

She attained prominence at age 19 in 2010 when she placed third in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) Gospel Song Competition.

The feat opened doors for Hall, who toured the United States and served as a background vocalist and opening act for Papa San.

Now, Hall is focused on developing her own ministry.

“I am mostly a performing artiste, but I am focusing on building my brand in the market space. I want people to be able to reach my music through social media, the radio, and all forms of media,” Hall told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Her tracks include the hybrid number Waiting and the Christian ballad Thank You. But the soft-spoken vocalist wants to do more than just sing songs.

“I want to get into schools and have a programme that gives young people a platform to be comfortable and talk about things they are going through. I want to give them a listening ear,” she said. “I am not only interested in music but the people who listen to my music. It is important to make sure the two are developed and grow with me as I am growing, no matter what age they are. If I don’t sing another day in my life, I want to make sure whomever hears about Tiffany Hall can say my music touched them or what I said on a stage helped them in some way.”

Her interest in engaging others can be attributed to her childhood as she recalled singing for customers at her grandmother’s bar at just eight years old.

She had the rich experience of being raised in St Elizabeth and Manchester, although she was born in Clarendon. She is a past student of Westwood High School in Trelawny and Bishop Gibson High School in Manchester.

Hall said that despite travelling back and forth, her mother ensured that she was sheltered, which created time for her to seek God. On the cusp of leaving high school, she decided to pursue music full-time upon the recommendation of her bishop.

“I applied to so many colleges, but nothing came through. My mom said she would support me regardless of my decision, and my then bishop told me that God is leading me down a path to do music full-time and said the JCDC competition would be a good thing for me. I entered as the youngest person in the competition, and my career really started from there,” Hall said.

She maintains she has no specific target audience as her diversity allows her to minister to anyone from a pentecostal church to the Reggae Sumfest stage.

This versatility is often disguised by her image as she said people often perceive her as a “stuck-up Christian who ought to enter a beauty pageant”.

“Some people see me in make-up, pants, jewellery, braids, and they judge the outside and say I don’t look like a gospel artiste, more like a beauty queen. When I take the mic, it’s a whole different world, and people will come to me and take back their opinion because my ministry touched them. I don’t let perceptions get me down because my heart is completely for the people. So it’s never about what I look like on the outside.”