Since my last post of 2023, I’ve been exploring musical performer Wé Ani’s wide (wild?) diversity of vocal textures.[1] In this one, I present evidence of something no less striking: the extreme variability of her self-presentation. Together, they raise, playfully, the genuine metaphysical question about personal identity over time. Playfully, I say, for it’s grounded not in abstractions, but in perception and enjoyment.[2]
Of course, if you don’t care about her aural variety, evidence for its visual counterpart may strike you little more than an array of silent pictures. It’s up to the curious among you to add sonic color to static portraits.
If that’s not you, fine. If it is, however, click on the audio links. In short, this one’s for the cognoscenti.
My thesis—if my opinion rises to the dignity of one—is anchored in the contrast between two stunningly perfect auditions: her 2016 appearance on The Voice at 17 and her 2023 audition for American Idol at 24. Respectively:
Feeling Good and
Anyone (compare 2026 version @0:28)
When I saw the latter, I had entirely forgotten that she had wowed me seven years earlier. That lapse had nothing to do with her change of stage name from Wé McDonald to Wé Ani.[3] No, she was different. Not just vocally, but visually: a change of texture, not merely of age.
There’s nothing remarkable about one’s appearance changing over seven years, but those two performances hardly exhaust the evidence.
This isn’t mere photogenic variability, but something closer to protean self-presentation, without a hint of theatricality or affectation. Wé doesn’t pose as different people, but simply appears differently, from song to song, and from interview to interview. Here are two perfect examples of the latter (which must be audited to be appreciated):
The Roundtable with Robert Bannon
The continuities are tellingly spare: her speaking pitch and the winsome personality that suffuses it.
You’ve changed over the past seven years, but you should bear more than a family resemblance to yourself from year to year. But not Wé.
Again, she raises for me a playful, but genuine, question of identity over time, a puzzle grounded in both perception and enjoyment.
Vocally, she moves through an unmatched range of textures, from breathy intimacy through purity to grit, without sounding like anyone else—or even like herself the last time you heard her.
I hope you’ll enjoy the many (well, two dozen) infallible pictorial proofs arrayed below (in no particular order) as well as her music by clicking on the links beneath them.
Please tell me if you think I’m exaggerating. Better, if you know people more knowledgeable than I (or yourself) in the performing arts, ask them to Wé in. (:^D)
Earlier posts contain more evidence for my thesis.[4] From them I could have adduced many more examples, but I’ll reserve them for a future post. These are enough to make my case.[5]
Of course, you can’t watch them all now, but at least jump ahead to the last two! (And don’t miss the interviews linked above.) I predict that even one of them will draw you in further.
I’ve never met Wé Ani, and I don’t think I ever will. But if you know anybody who knows anybody who does, please put this in front of them. Thanks!
Happy Birthday, Wé Ani!
“Head Up High” (first music video)
“(Fly Me) To the Moon” (Good Day New York Live TV)
“Something’s Got a Hold on Me”
“Bust Your Windows” (with Jazmine Sullivan; Wé enters @3:15)
Joe’s Pub (04.07.2018; medley of snippets)
Tamron Hall Show (o1.06.2026)
“Hit ’em Up Style (with a Twist)”
When Celebrities Hear Her Sing, and Speak, for the First Time
“It can’t be the same person.” — Garth Brooks
Notes
[1] You can catch up here, which will lead elsewhere. As I wrote in that December 31, 2023 post, “There seem to be at least a half dozen Wé Anis: after watching any two videos, I sincerely wonder, “Is that the same singer?” Without, I stress, impersonating any of them, she can put you in mind of Nina Simone, or Mary J. Blige, or Idina Menzel, or Whitney Houston, or Aretha Franklin, or Barbra Streisand. (This list is not exhaustive, but it risked becoming exhausting).”
[2] This is part of what I meant last month by “everything else.”
[3] As I noted here, after her 2023 American Idol audition, Wé answered a judge’s question about her name. “Wé” means “diligence” in Swahili, she said. I’m sure that claim reflects what her family has told her. Bidii is Swahili for “diligence”; perhaps her name is rooted in a regional dialect. (Besides the standard dialect, Kiunguja, there are Kimvita, Kiamu, Kingwana, and Kipemba.) “Ani” echoes “Ann” or “Annie,” her maternal grandmother’s name. Jackie Bland McDonald is Wé’s mother; Ann Bland was the daughter of R&B singer Billy Bland (1932-2017), not, NB, his contemporary, Blues singer Bobby “Blue” Bland (1930-2013). Wé is Billy Bland’s great-granddaughter! I was happy to notice that, in the video of her cover of “Shallow,” a CD of his greatest hits atop the case of audiocassettes behind her.
[4] “Wé Ani: a protean multiplex of vocal performance,” June 11, 2024; “Happy Birthday, Wé Ani, My Musical Tonic and Oasis,” January 23, 2024. Two years ago!
[5] More recently (January 6th), she performed “Old News” on The Tamron Hall Show, expanding on the video short of a few years ago.
