Cynthia Erivo's I Forgive You has a simple but powerful premise: Amidst emotional toil, embrace the vulnerability and the imperfections that make us human.
"The more I've grown to know who I am, the more I've become more of myself," Erivo tells GRAMMY.com. "[I'm] taking on the parts of me that might not be perfect. Taking on the parts of me that I love has allowed me to free up who I am and become more creatively daring."
The GRAMMY winner has endeared audiences worldwide with her charisma, authenticity, and versatility since starring in “The Color Purple” on Broadway and London's West End between 2013 and 2015. These, plus her dedication to craftsmanship, have made her the recording, film, and stage artist she is today.
But with her sophomore album, Erivo has doubled down — betting on herself and determined to shatter socially and self-imposed boundaries.
"I just let myself be free."
The luminous and ambitious I Forgive You ripples with R&B, pop, and folk, but even such categories cannot fully capture its depth. Erivo lets her unmistakable vocal prowess weave through the beats, vocal pedals, and swelling string crescendos. She shares her innermost observations about the torturous pain of heartbreak, the tender intimacy in partnership, and the emotional clarity that signals that healing is nonlinear.
Her voice radiates delicate warmth, speaking slightly above a whisper, protecting the instrument that has given her so much over the years. "In every song, there are things that you're hearing in there that you might not realize are actually me sampled or me making the sound. There are drones in there and basses in there that are in my voice," she says. Kevin Garrett's voice appears in "Holy Refrain," but everything else is Erivo.
As Erivo shares the technical aspects that went into crafting I Forgive You, it seems that, for the first time, she understands the greatness
of this musical facet of her artistry: it's a complete portrait of herself. She has never sounded more comfortable in her skin.
Cynthia Erivo spoke with GRAMMY.com about her most mature album to date, her pursuit of liberation as an artist and woman, and more.
We last saw you in the film adaptation of Wicked, where you earned an Academy Award nomination. This time, you're singing as yourself and not a character. What was the process of returning to your music like?
I don't think I've ever left music. I've just been doing other things at the same time; I wrote the last album a while ago. I've always wanted to come back but have been a little bit apprehensive about it, and felt like I didn't really have the right team, and the time was filled with mostly live performances, film, and TV.
Being in the space of doing all that and creating made me miss it, and so it felt like it was just time to get back to something I knew, loved, and connected with.
Read more: 'Wicked' Composer Stephen Schwartz Details His Journey Down The Yellow Brick Road
I Forgive You marks a turn from your 2021 debut album, which was heavily influenced by contemporary soul. It feels very liberated.
I think that for [Ch. 1 Vs. 1], I felt like it was going by the formula, trying to fit a formula that I thought might work, and I don't think I was fully being myself, and I didn't really get the chance to pick the writers I wanted to work with. I didn't feel like some moments on that album feel very much like me, and there are moments where I'm filling in the blanks, almost.
But this time around, this was all me. This was all informed by things I listened to when I was younger, things I loved, so it just sort of happened. I didn't put pressure on myself when it came to creating songs in different genres. Once you put a melody down, the song sort of wrote itself, and I wouldn't try to make it into something else. If it came out feeling like a country song, came up like a country song, if it came out feeling like a folk song, if that song came up feeling like R&B and gospel, that's how it came out. These things are part of the DNA of my musical taste and what I've grown up with, so I just let myself be free.
How did you reach this creative, musical emancipation?
This was a quiet conversation I had with myself. It was like, Do I try to make this a particular type of album? Am I gonna adhere to making it a particular kind of album, an R&B or a soul album? Then I just stopped and said, No, I think I'm just gonna write. Whatever comes out, whichever are the songs I love, are the songs that I love, and whichever are the songs that tell the stories I want to tell will be the songs on the album.
You collaborated with songwriter Justin Tranter on this album. How does your collaboration look in practice?
Justin would come in, and he would say, "What are we feeling like doing today? Do we want something deep? Do we want sexy? Do we want something loving? What do we feel like?" And I'd say, "Well, I think I want to write something that's loving. I want to write something that's kind of upbeat but sweet, kind." And then he goes, "Okay, so what about this?" And then I'll go, "I don't like that suggestion."
And then I bring up my pen and paper, and Justin is excellent when it comes to sitting back and stepping out of the way to let me write. I'll relay the lyrics to him, and he'll say, "That sounds really cool, but what about…" and he'll make a small melody change that changes the entire thing in the way that I wanted to because it helps them to come through once that song is completely recorded.
Justin will listen to it, and I say, "Oh yeah, I know you. But what if we add this bass right here? What if we add this whistle right here, or add your nails instead of a clap?" That's what Justin is really beautiful at doing: making sure the finer details are also taken care of. I look for those things. But when you have someone like Justin in the room, you can trust that those things will be handled. So you could just kind of go.
Speaking of details, the songs in this album mostly feature sounds from you. Can you walk me through the reason for adding a string section in "You First?"
I love the sound of strings, but there's a tonality in the quality of texture they bring that you can't really do with a voice. It opens everything up and makes things more dramatic. And you can accent a storyline with the right string orchestra.
Tell me about the child whose voice is featured at the end of "Grace."
The child at the end of "Grace" is Grace. She passed away when she was about 13. I met her last year when she watched Wicked. Then we started sending videos to each other, and I finally had a FaceTime with her. She was a sweet, sweet girl, and that was a message she had sent me.
You beautifully chronicle the contradictions of being human and our ability to transform and change. Was there a song on the album that had the most significant transformation from when you began working on it to the final version that will be released?
"Holy Refrain," I wrote it four years ago and didn't finish it. It was a different song, and it had no backgrounds on it, and it was just one vocal line that was a very simple melody, and then, we finished it, and it became what it has become: this big, all-out love song. It was a very simple folky-type song before it became what I think is very gospel, so that song had the biggest transformation.
"Brick By Brick" had a big transformation as well. Before, it was like one verse and one chorus, and the structure changed as I understood what it was that I really wanted to say.
My introduction to you was "The Color Purple" on Broadway in late 2015. What's your relationship to Broadway now?
I'm going to be hosting The Tonys. I'm still very close, and I see as much as I can. This time, I get to see almost everything. I haven't disappeared, that's for sure. I may be back soon. Once you have the Broadway bug, you can't leave it forever. It's something you always get back to. It's like sharpening the tools.
How has your musicianship and self-preservation evolved with your internal identity and relationship to yourself?
My choices as a musician have become more adventurous, trying new things with my voice, like at the end of "More Than Twice," that sort of ululating, which I've never done in public. I've never done it on anything. It allows me to play with the use of breath and the falsetto.
When you find out who you are fully, you get to find out who you are as a musician fully, so that discovery of self keeps happening. Writing this album has been really freeing. I got to really dive into the love I have for music, the love I have for making it, not just singing, but the making of it, the sound of a violin and the difference between a cello and a double bass, the difference between the soprano sax and a saxophone and going back to the root of who I am, those things that I knew when I was younger and learned about when I was younger, I get to now express and share as well as a musician.