Music / Civil rights & activism
Janiva Magness
born 1957 · blues and soul singer, songwriter, author
Detroit-born blues and soul singer, Blues Foundation Entertainer of the Year in 2009, whose hard Detroit childhood shaped her music and her foster-care advocacy.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 69- Detroit years
- 1957–1970s
- Field
- Music, Civil rights & activism
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Magness was born in Detroit in 1957 and grew up with her father's record collection, which first pulled her toward blues and soul. Her childhood was marked by loss: both of her parents died by suicide before she was out of her mid-teens, and she was placed in a series of about a dozen foster homes. She found her footing in music after leaving Michigan, forming her first band, the Mojomatics, in Phoenix and moving to Los Angeles in 1986. Over the following decades she built a reputation as one of the strongest voices in contemporary blues, releasing 16 albums. In 2009 the Blues Foundation named her B.B. King Entertainer of the Year, only the second woman after Koko Taylor to receive the honor, and her album Love Wins Again earned a Grammy nomination in 2016. Her 2019 memoir Weeds Like Us tells the story of those Detroit years, and she speaks nationally for foster-care causes.
Highlights
- B.B. King Entertainer of the Year, Blues Foundation (2009)
- Seven Blues Music Awards from 29 nominations
- Grammy nomination for Love Wins Again (2016)
- Memoir Weeds Like Us (2019)
- National spokesperson for Casey Family Programs (foster care)