Vanessa Williams

Biography

Vanessa Lynn Williams (born March 18, 1963) is an American singer, actress, model, producer and dancer. She gained recognition as the first Black woman to win the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America 1984. She would later resign her title amid a media controversy surrounding nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine. Thirty-two years later, Williams was offered a public apology during the Miss America 2016 pageant for the events.
Williams rebounded from the scandal with a successful career as a singer and actress. In 1988, she released her debut studio album The Right Stuff×The Right Stuff30 August 1988 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1The Right Stuff4:272Be a Man4:573Dreamin' (12" Version)5:264If You Really Love Him5:265(He's Got) That Look4:066I'll Be the One4:337Security4:398Darlin I4:119Am I Too Much?4:2110Can This Be Real?5:1411Whatever Happens3:28, whose title single saw moderate success as well as "Dreamin'×Dreamin'1988 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksADreamin' (edit)4:22BThe Right Stuff (instrumental)4:32", which peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in 1989. With her second and third studio albums, The Comfort Zone×The Comfort Zone20 August 1991 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 15 tracks1The Comfort Zone4:012Running Back to You4:403Work to Do4:374You Gotta Go6:225Still in Love5:226Save the Best for Last3:397What Will I Tell My Heart4:178Strangers Eyes6:1692 of a Kind5:1610Freedom Dance (Get Free!)4:1511Just for Tonight4:2912One Reason4:5213Better Off Now4:1314Goodbye4:2115The Right Stuff (Norman Cook 12″ remix)6:19 (1991) and The Sweetest Days×The Sweetest Days6 December 1994 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Intro-Lude0:562The Way That You Love4:493Betcha Never3:584The Sweetest Days3:315Higher Ground4:216You Don't Have to Say You're Sorry4:117Ellamental6:068Sister Moon5:289You Can't Run4:2610Moonlight Over Paris5:0611Constantly5:0412Long Way Home4:20 (1994), she saw continued commercial success and received multiple Grammy Award nominations, including her number-one single and signature song, "Save the Best for Last×Save the Best for Last1991 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 5 tracks1Save the Best for Last3:412Freedom Dance (Get Free!)4:163Freedom Dance (Get Free!) (Free Your Body Club mix)7:024Freedom Dance (Get Free!) (Vanessa's Sweat mix)5:245The Right Stuff (UK mix)6:18", which she performed live at the 1993 Grammy Awards ceremonies. Her later studio albums include Everlasting Love×Everlasting Love25 January 2005 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Tuning0:182Never Can Say Goodbye5:043Midnight Blue3:474Show and Tell4:125Let's Love4:596First Time Ever I Saw Your Face5:437Everlasting Love4:328With You I'm Born Again3:549Send One Your Love3:4210You Are Everything3:4711One Less Bell to Answer4:0712I'll Be Good to You4:2913Harvest for the World5:2514Today and Everyday (Wedding Song)4:50 (2005), The Real Thing×The Real Thing2 June 2009 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Breathless4:492Hello Like Before4:263Loving You3:294Just Friends4:135The Real Thing5:106Lazy Afternoon4:557Close to You4:378I Fell In4:449October Sky4:2510Come On Strong2:3611If There Were No Song4:30 (2009), and Survivor×Survivor23 August 2024 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1iLike Moonlight4:172Legs (Keep Dancing)3:073BOP!3:264Survivor3:285La Costa3:596Vuelve (feat. Missael Manon)4:157Junk Man4:098Zaz Zuh Zaz (feat. Wynton Marsalis)3:419Come Dance With Me3:0410On The Other Side Of The Tracks2:2511Here’s To You3:1112I See You2:4113Being Good Isn’t Good Enough3:5214Come Dance With Me (John “J-C” Carr & Bill Coleman 808 BEACH Jukebox Remix)2:22 (2024).
As an actress, Williams enjoyed success on stage and screen. She made her Broadway debut in 1994 with Kiss of the Spider Woman. In 2002, she starred as The Witch in the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods that earned her a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical at the 56th Tony Awards. She starred in the revival of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful in 2013, and the ensemble political farce POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022. In television, Williams has played Wilhelmina Slater on Ugly Betty (2006–2010) for which she was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series; and Renee Perry on Desperate Housewives (2010–2012). Since 2024, she has been starring as Miranda Priestly in the musical The Devil Wears Prada at the Dominion Theatre, London.

Early life and education

Vanessa Lynn Williams was born on March 18, 1963, in Tarrytown, New York, a suburb of New York City. She had a birth announcement that read: "Here she is: Miss America". She was raised nearby in Millwood, New York. A paternal great-great-grandfather was William Feilds, an African-American legislator in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Williams is also of English, Welsh, Irish, Finnish, Italian, and Portuguese descent. Her mother Helen Tinch (1939–2024) met her father Milton Augustine Williams Jr. (1934–2006) while both were music education students at Fredonia State Teachers College in the late 1950s. They became elementary school music teachers in separate districts after marriage. Milton also served as the assistant principal of his school for an extended period of time.
Williams was raised Catholic, the religion of her father. Her mother, who had been raised Baptist, converted to Catholicism when she married. Williams was baptized at Our Lady of Grace Church in the Bronx. Her mother played the organ at St. Theresa's Church in Briarcliff Manor for weddings and at Mass, and Williams used to assist her mother by turning the pages of sheet music.
Williams and her younger brother Chris Williams, who later became an actor, grew up in Westchester County, a predominantly white middle-to-upper-class suburb of New York City. Williams believes she may have been the first African-American student to go from the first grade to the 12th grade in the Chappaqua Central School District. She attended Robert E. Bell Middle School, as did her children years later. Williams revealed that the shop and home economics teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Fink, were still there when her children attended.
A child of music teachers, Williams grew up in a musical household, studying classical and jazz dance, French horn, piano, and violin. She was offered the Presidential Scholarship for Drama to attend Carnegie Mellon University during the college application period, one of 12 students to receive it, but decided instead to attend Syracuse University on a different scholarship. In 1981, Williams joined Syracuse's College of Visual and Performing Arts, Department of Drama as a musical theater major. She stayed at Syracuse through her second year until she was crowned Miss America 1984 in September 1983.
In May 2008, Syracuse granted Williams a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. According to Syracuse News, "Williams earned the remaining credits for her degree through industry experience and her substantial performances on stage and screen." Williams delivered the 2008 convocation address, telling Syracuse seniors to "treasure this moment. These days are irreplaceable and are the beginning of the rest of your life."

Name misattribution

Williams is most often publicly recognized simply as "Vanessa Williams." There is occasional confusion with the similarly named actress Vanessa E. Williams. It has been reported that Vanessa L. became aware of Vanessa E. in the 1980s when the New York University registrar told her that another, similarly aged student with the same name and from the same state had applied. When Williams appeared as Miss America in a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Vanessa E. accidentally received her cheque for the appearance, which she returned.
In the area of acting, the two ran into name conflict when Screen Actors Guild rules prohibited duplicate stage naming. Vanessa E. had registered the name "Vanessa Williams" first, so as a compromise, Williams was occasionally credited as "Vanessa L. Williams" in acting credits. To compound the confusion, both actresses starred in versions of the drama Soul Food, Williams in the film version, and Vanessa E. in its TV series adaptation. The Screen Actors Guild eventually took the issue to arbitration, and decided both actresses could use the professional name "Vanessa Williams".

Miss America

Williams was the first African-American recipient of the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America 1984 on September 17, 1983. Several weeks before the end of her reign, a scandal arose when Penthouse magazine bought nude photographs of her and published them without Williams' consent. In the summer of '82 she also posed for another photographer, Greg Whitman, who sent a telegram to Bob Guccione offering more nude photographs of Williams, after he heard photographer Tom Chiapel's pictures had been sold to Penthouse. The photographer said in an interview that she signed a release on the pictures. Williams claimed, ''people wouldn't forgive a second mistake.'' Williams was pressured to relinquish her title in July 1984 and was succeeded by the first runner-up: Miss New Jersey 1983 Suzette Charles.
Thirty-two years later in September 2015, when Williams served as head judge for the Miss America 2016 pageant, former Miss America CEO Sam Haskell made a public apology to her for the events of 1984.

Music

Williams first received public recognition for her musical abilities when she won the preliminary talent portion of the Miss America pageant with her rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again" (Williams would later be crowned Miss America 1984). Four years later in 1988, Williams released her debut album, The Right Stuff×The Right Stuff30 August 1988 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1The Right Stuff4:272Be a Man4:573Dreamin' (12" Version)5:264If You Really Love Him5:265(He's Got) That Look4:066I'll Be the One4:337Security4:398Darlin I4:119Am I Too Much?4:2110Can This Be Real?5:1411Whatever Happens3:28. The first single, "The Right Stuff", found success on the R&B chart, while the second single, "He's Got the Look", found similar success on the same chart. The third single, "Dreamin'×Dreamin'1988 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksADreamin' (edit)4:22BThe Right Stuff (instrumental)4:32", was a pop hit, becoming Williams' first top 10 hit on the 1989 Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 8, and her first number one single on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The album reached gold status in the U.S. and earned her an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding New Artist and three Grammy Award nominations, including one for Best New Artist at the 31st Grammy Awards.
Her 1991 second album The Comfort Zone×The Comfort Zone20 August 1991 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 15 tracks1The Comfort Zone4:012Running Back to You4:403Work to Do4:374You Gotta Go6:225Still in Love5:226Save the Best for Last3:397What Will I Tell My Heart4:178Strangers Eyes6:1692 of a Kind5:1610Freedom Dance (Get Free!)4:1511Just for Tonight4:2912One Reason4:5213Better Off Now4:1314Goodbye4:2115The Right Stuff (Norman Cook 12″ remix)6:19 became the biggest success in her music career. The lead single "Running Back to You×Running Back to You1991 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1Running Back to You (Vanessa's club mix)7:562Running Back to You (Vanessa's Sweat mix)5:093Running Back to You (DNA extended)5:024Running Back to You (Flip Hop mix)7:01" reached top twenty on the Hot 100, and the top position of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart on October 5, 1991. Other singles included "The Comfort Zone" (number 2 R&B), "Just for Tonight" (number 26 Pop), a cover of The Isley Brothers' "Work to Do" (number 3 R&B), and the club-only hit "Freedom Dance (Get Free!)".
The most successful single from the album, as well as her biggest hit to date, is "Save the Best for Last×Save the Best for Last1991 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 5 tracks1Save the Best for Last3:412Freedom Dance (Get Free!)4:163Freedom Dance (Get Free!) (Free Your Body Club mix)7:024Freedom Dance (Get Free!) (Vanessa's Sweat mix)5:245The Right Stuff (UK mix)6:18". It reached No. 1 in the United States, where it remained for five weeks, as well as No. 1 in Australia, the Netherlands, and Canada, and was in the top 5 in Japan, on the Irish Singles Chart and the UK singles chart. The album sold 2.2 million copies in the U.S. at its time of release and has since been certified triple platinum in the United States by the RIAA, gold in Canada by the CRIA, and platinum in the United Kingdom by the BPI. Williams performed the song live at the 1993 Grammy Awards. The Comfort Zone earned Williams five Grammy Award nominations.
The Sweetest Days, her third album, was released in 1994 to highly favorable reviews. The album saw Williams branch out and sample other styles of music that included jazz, hip hop, rock, and Latin-themed recordings such as "Betcha Never" and "You Can't Run", both written and produced by Babyface. Other singles from the album included the adult-contemporary and dance hit "The Way That You Love×The Way That You Love1995 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 7 tracks1The Way That You Love (Mainstream Version)3:542The Way That You Love (20 Fingers Club Mix)7:053The Way That You Love (Armand's Funky Foam Mix)8:054The Way That You Love (20 Fingers Dub)5:285The Way That You Love (Rhythm Mix)3:476The Way That You Love (Acappella)3:217The Way That You Love (Late Night Mix)5:45" and the title track. The album was certified platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA and earned her two Grammy Award nominations.
Other releases include two Christmas albums, Star Bright×Star Bright1996 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Do You Hear What I Hear/Little Drummer Boy5:032Star Bright3:373Hark the Herald Angels Sing5:354Baby, It’s Cold Outside4:525I Wonder as I Wander4:416Sleep Well Little Children0:407Angels We Have Heard on High4:588The First Noel4:299What Child Is This3:5310Gracious Good Shepherd4:1611Go Tell It on the Mountain/Mary Had a Baby5:4812I’ll Be Home for Christmas3:33 in 1996, and Silver & Gold×Silver & Gold2004 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Silver & Gold3:292Joy to the World4:533Mary's Little Boy Child6:344Silent Night4:285Winter Weather3:026The Little Drummer Boy5:147Merry Christmas, Darling3:508Rise Up, Shepherd and Follow4:539Prelude: I Dream a World1:2010December Lullaby4:3511The Holly and Ivy3:3412Christmas Is4:4713Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas4:00 in 2004, as well as Next in 1997, Everlasting Love in 2005, and The Real Thing in 2009, along with Greatest Hits: The First Ten Years, a greatest hits compilation released in 1998, and a number of other compilations released over the years. Chart performances from subsequent albums, motion picture and television soundtracks have included the songs "Love Is×Love Is1992 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1Love Is (Radio Edit)4:012Love Is (Album Version)4:453Love Is (Instrumental)4:45", which was a duet with Brian McKnight, the Golden Globe- and Academy Award-winning "Colors of the Wind×Colors of the Wind21 June 1995 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1Colors of the Wind4:212Kleuren van de wind3:34", "Where Do We Go from Here×Where Do We Go From Here1996 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1Where Do We Go From Here4:192Erase4:483If I Had Wings4:164Constantly5:04?", and "Oh How the Years Go By".
In 1996, Williams performed the national anthem at Super Bowl XXX.
In April 2018, she announced she was working on a new studio album due in the fall that would incorporate her R&B, pop, & Broadway influences.
On April 26, 2024, Williams released a new single, "Legs (Keep Dancing)×Legs (Keep Dancing)26 April 2024 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Legs (Keep Dancing)3:08", the first from her ninth studio album, Survivor×Survivor23 August 2024 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1iLike Moonlight4:172Legs (Keep Dancing)3:073BOP!3:264Survivor3:285La Costa3:596Vuelve (feat. Missael Manon)4:157Junk Man4:098Zaz Zuh Zaz (feat. Wynton Marsalis)3:419Come Dance With Me3:0410On The Other Side Of The Tracks2:2511Here’s To You3:1112I See You2:4113Being Good Isn’t Good Enough3:5214Come Dance With Me (John “J-C” Carr & Bill Coleman 808 BEACH Jukebox Remix)2:22, which was released on August 23, 2024. Williams launched her own record label, Mellian Music, for the release. On May 13, 2024, the digital single "Legs (Keep Dancing)" debuted on the US Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (Billboard) chart in the number 3 position. The single's success marks Williams' first hit on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart. In July 2024, Williams released the single "Bop!", a collaboration with Trixie Mattel and Lion Babe.
Vanessa Williams has surpassed 250 million total streams on Spotify across all credits. She averages nearly 190K daily listeners on the platform.

Television and film

Williams has had a successful career in television. Her first television appearance was on a 1984 episode of The Love Boat followed by guest appearances in a number of popular shows. In 1995, Williams starred as Rose Alvarez in a television adaptation of the 1960 Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie and portrayed the nymph Calypso in the 1997 Hallmark Entertainment miniseries The Odyssey. In 2000, Williams starred in the Lifetime film about the life of Henriette DeLille, The Courage to Love and in 2003, Williams read the narrative of Tempie Herndon Durham from the WPA slave narratives in the HBO documentary Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives.
In 2006, Williams received considerable media attention for her comic/villainess role as former model/magazine creative director turned editor-in-chief Wilhelmina Slater in the ABC comedy series Ugly Betty. Her performance on the series resulted in a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards with additional nominations in 2008 and 2009. Williams next joined the cast of Desperate Housewives for its seventh season, where she portrayed Renee Perry, an old college "frenemy" of Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman). In 2016, she joined the cast of The Librarians, as recurring villainess General Cynthia Rockwell. She starred as Maxine Robinson in the VH1 television series Daytime Divas during its one season in 2017.
Williams has appeared in a number of feature films. She received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for her portrayal of Teri Joseph for the 1997 feature film Soul Food. In 2007, she starred in the independent film My Brother, for which she won Best Actress honors at the Harlem International Film Festival, the African-American Women in Cinema Film Festival, and at the Santa Barbara African Heritage Film Festival. She also notably co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1996 film Eraser, Samuel L. Jackson in the 2000 soft reboot of Shaft, the characters from Sesame Street in the 1999 film The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, as the Queen of Trash, and with Miley Cyrus in the 2009 film Hannah Montana: The Movie.

Theatre

Williams began her career on stage in the 1985 production, One Man Band, as one of "the women". She followed it in 1989 as Laura in Ron Milner's Checkmates.
In 1994, she broadened her ascendant music career into a theatrical role when she replaced Chita Rivera as Aurora in the Broadway production of Kiss of the Spider Woman. In 1998, she portrayed Della Green in the revival of St. Louis Woman, and Carmen Jones in the 2002 Kennedy Center Special Performance of Carmen Jones. In the same year, she was also featured in the Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning revival production of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical at the 56th Tony Awards and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her performance as the Witch. This production included songs revised for her.
In 2010, Vanessa starred in a new Broadway musical revue entitled Sondheim on Sondheim, a look at Stephen Sondheim through his music, film and videotaped interviews. Sondheim ran from March 19 to June 13 at Studio 54 in New York City. In 2013, she starred as Jessie Mae Watts in the Horton Foote play The Trip to Bountiful, which was later turned into a 2014 television film. In 2014, she starred in the Broadway musical, After Midnight and in 2015, she appeared in a PBS production of Show Boat as Julie La Verne. Williams starred as Margaret in POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive on Broadway, with performances that began on April 14, 2022, at the Shubert Theatre. Wi
In February, 2024 Williams was cast to play the role of Miranda Priestly, in a stage production of the Devil Wears Prada at the Dominion Theatre in London's West End.

Additional roles

Williams served as the host of the 1994 Essence Awards, co-host of Carnegie Hall Salutes the Jazz Masters: Verve Records at 50, host of the 1998 NAACP Image Awards, host of the 2002 documentary, It's Black Entertainment, host of The 6th Annual TV Land Awards in 2007, host of the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 2009, and host of the documentary Dreams Come True: A Celebration of Disney Animation in 2009.
Williams is a spokesmodel for Proactiv Solution, and was the first African-American spokesmodel for L'Oréal cosmetics in the 1990s. In 2018, Williams returned as a spokesmodel for L'Oréal as part of their "Age Perfect" campaign alongside fellow ambassadors Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, and Jane Fonda.
In 2000, she appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as a contestant, and again in August 2009, as a celebrity guest during the show's tenth anniversary prime-time special editions, winning $50,000 for her charity.
In a commercial that began running during Super Bowl XLVI in 2012, Williams voiced the new character Ms. Brown, a brown M&M.
In 2020, Williams was the winner of season 1, episode 2 of RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race, and donated her prize of $20,000 to the LGBTQ charity The Trevor Project.

Fashion

In March 2016, Williams launched her own clothing line, V. by Vanessa Williams, for EVINE Live.

Personal life

Williams and her mother Helen co-authored a memoir titled You Have No Idea, published in April 2012. In the book, Williams discusses her childhood, rise to fame, and personal struggles, including life with type 1 diabetes and that she was sexually molested by a woman when she was ten years old. She spoke candidly about having an abortion while she was in high school.
Williams is a practicing Catholic, something she spoke about on the ABC News program Focus on Faith with Father Edward L. Beck.
Williams has been married three times. She married Ramon Hervey II at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in 1987, just a few years after giving up her Miss America crown and gave birth to her first child at that time. Hervey was a public relations specialist who was hired to resuscitate her career after her resignation. They had three children, including Jillian. They divorced in 1997.
She married NBA basketball player Rick Fox in 1999. They had one daughter, Sasha Gabriella Fox. They divorced in 2004. In 2015, she married Jim Skrip, a businessman from Buffalo, New York, at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, after receiving a Church annulment of her first marriage. The couple divorced in 2021.
In 2013, she was in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? to learn about her background. According to the DNA test results, she is 23% Ghanaian, 17% British, 15% Cameroonian, 12% Finnish, 11% Southern European, 7% Togolese, 6% Beninese, 5% Senegalese and 4% Portuguese.

Activism

Williams is involved with several humanitarian causes. In 2011, participated in the human rights campaign New Yorkers for Marriage Equality. She currently sits on the board of The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture, a creative arts space run by the Catholic Archdiocese. She is partnered with Dress For Success, an organization that provides professional attire for low-income women seeking employment. Williams is also involved with The San Miquel Academy of Newburgh, a school for boys at risk.

Honors and awards

Williams is the recipient of many awards and nominations including eleven Grammy nominations for hits such as "The Right Stuff×The Right Stuff30 August 1988 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1The Right Stuff4:272Be a Man4:573Dreamin' (12" Version)5:264If You Really Love Him5:265(He's Got) That Look4:066I'll Be the One4:337Security4:398Darlin I4:119Am I Too Much?4:2110Can This Be Real?5:1411Whatever Happens3:28", "Save the Best for Last×Save the Best for Last1991 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 5 tracks1Save the Best for Last3:412Freedom Dance (Get Free!)4:163Freedom Dance (Get Free!) (Free Your Body Club mix)7:024Freedom Dance (Get Free!) (Vanessa's Sweat mix)5:245The Right Stuff (UK mix)6:18", and "Colors of the Wind×Colors of the Wind21 June 1995 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1Colors of the Wind4:212Kleuren van de wind3:34". In addition, she has earned three Emmy nominations, a Tony Award nomination, seven NAACP Image Awards, and four Satellite Awards.
She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 19, 2007.
In December 2017, Vanessa L. Williams participated at COAF Gala fundraising event, delivering a special performance of her Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning song "Colors of the Wind" and paid tribute to Patricia Field, with whom she worked on the set of the TV series Ugly Betty.

Studio albums

The Right Stuff (1988)
The Comfort Zone (1991)
The Sweetest Days (1994)
Star Bright (1996)
Next (1997)
Silver & Gold (2004)
Everlasting Love (2005)
The Real Thing (2009)
Survivor (2024)

Books written

Williams, Vanessa; Williams, Helen (2012). You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter, Her No-Nonsense Mother, and How They Survived Pageants, Hollywood, Love, Loss (and Each Other). New York: Gotham Books. ISBN 978-1-5924-0759-0.
Williams, Vanessa (2020). Bubble Kisses. New York: Sterling Children's Books. ISBN 978-1-4549-3834-7.