
Vanessa Williams is making a comeback to music.
The model and actress recently dropped a new music video for her single “Legs (Keep Dancing).” The fun, up-beat pop song is Williams’ first original single since dropping her album “The Real Thing” in 2009 — breaking a 15-year music hiatus.
“They say the legs are the last to go / I’ma keep dancing,” Williams, 61, sings while dancing in the video. “I’m still putting on the show / I’ma keep dancing.”
While Williams is re-entering the music world, her impact and influence in the industry has long been existent — with hits like her 1991 single “Save The Best for Last,” which topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 1992 and has 75 million views on YouTube.
And if making a mark in music wasn’t enough, Williams also created a legacy in entertainment and modeling. In 1983, she made history as the first Black woman to be crowned Miss America. Williams has also won multiple awards as an actress, including a NAACP Image Award for her role in the 1996 film “Soul Food,” along with a Satellite Award in 2011 for best supporting actress in the television series “Desperate Housewives.”
In addition to making new music, Williams recently announced that she’s set to star as fictional magazine editor Miranda Priestly in the musical adaptation of “The Devil Wears Prada” in London this fall.
In a world where ageism is prevalent, Williams continues to prove that age is just a number. During a sit-down interview on the Jennifer Hudson Show last year, Williams told Hudson “it’s a privilege” to become older. She also noted some of the monumental women she’s worked with continued performing into their 80s, including Cicely Tyson, Barbara Cook and Eartha Kitt.
“Those are the people when you see not only the legacy…but when you see the fire they have at that age to still want to do it and still set the audience on fire — that’s what’s going to make me do the same thing for the next 30 years,” Williams said.
The lyrics in Williams’ newest song is not only a song of encouragement, but is a testament to how she lives her life: “So say what you say/ Expect me to fade/ I don’t think about it/ Got work left to do / And I’m not close to through / Not while I still got these legs.”