India.Arie faced a particularly unique pressure going into her second album, 2002's Voyage to India. Signed by Motown after performing at Lilith Fair in the late '90s, Arie was a new kind of talent within the burgeoning soul revival movement of the time. And just the year prior, Arie's acclaimed debut, Acoustic Soul, had established her as one of the brightest stars to emerge from the neo soul explosion of the early 2000s — so all eyes were on her when it came time to follow it up.
Unlike some of her contemporaries, such as Jill Scott, Macy Gray or Erykah Badu, the Atlanta-raised Arie (who was born India Arie Simpson) wielded her faithful acoustic guitar to craft a sound inspired in equal parts by the soul of Roberta Flack and the folk of Bonnie Raitt, all tied together with the songwriting prowess of her idol, Stevie Wonder.
The album turned Arie into an overnight success, thanks in large part to its anthemic lead single "Video," which preached radical self-love and the rejection of impossible beauty standards as the singer's defining manifesto. Acoustic Soul also earned her a whopping seven nominations at the 2002 GRAMMY Awards — including nods for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist — though she ended up leaving empty-handed by the end of the night.
There was no denying Arie had been dealt a very public blow to her confidence. "All I felt was, 'Maybe I'm not meant to have all of that…Maybe I wasn't built for that,' you know?" Arie recalled to Oprah Winfrey in 2013. "In hindsight I realize now that I was scared of failing and I was scared of succeeding."
However, instead of letting the defeat derail her artistic vision or frighten her further from succeeding, Arie turned inward to find inspiration and allowed the experience to fuel what eventually became 2002's Voyage to India. On lead single "Little Things," the singer grappled openly with her newfound stardom while reorienting her priorities.
"Runnin' round in circles, lost my focus, lost sight of my goals/ I do this for the love of music, not for the glitter and gold/ Got everything that I prayed for, even a little more/ When I asked to learn humility, this is what I was told/ It's the little things/ And the joy they bring, it's the little things," she sang, channeling the GRAMMYs strife and hard-earned wisdom over a lilting acoustic beat and clattering percussion.
Yes, in some ways it was a sentiment similar to the message she had first shared in "Video" when she sang, "I'm not the average girl from your video/ My worth is not determined by the price of my clothes/ No matter what I'm wearing I will always be/ India Arie." But this time, she had real-world experience of being battered by the fickle winds of fame — and emerged on the other side with her proverbial ship intact.
With Voyage, Arie doubled down on themes that had connected fans to her music in the first place, whether she was exhorting men to respect their female counterparts ("Talk To Her"), preaching a gospel of gratitude ("Slow Down"), basking in guidance from a divine hand (Headed In the Right Direction"), or espousing a wide-eyed appreciation for the beauty of creation ("God Is Real"). In between those reflections, interludes titled "Growth," "Healing" and "Gratitude" — as well as soothing love songs like "The Truth," "Beautiful Surprise" and "Can I Walk With You" — further displayed her knack for combining inspirational messages and warmhearted melodies.
The singer/songwriter also proved on her second outing that she had the musical smarts to deftly avoid any kind of sophomore slump. While she'd clearly had creative control on Acoustic Soul, it had been the learning process of an industry newcomer — with every song featuring one of several different co-producers listed next to her name in the credits.
This time around, Arie pared down the cooks in the musical kitchen by enlisting Nashville-based duo Drew and Shannon to help produce and write the bulk of the album. (She ultimately worked with the then-newcomers on eight of its 15 tracks, including "Little Things" and "Good Man.")
The partnership served Arie's music well, giving Voyage to India consistency as a more cohesive body of work that was filled with smarter production choices and stronger vocal performances than its predecessor. Arie even threw off the training wheels and produced five tracks on the album solely by herself.
Voyage to India came together quickly, with Motown aiming for a release date just seven months after the 2002 GRAMMYs. And by all means, the strategy was entirely intentional: The label's then-president and chief executive Kedar Massenburg admitted that he pushed Arie to release the album ahead of the Recording Academy's Oct. 1st submission deadline.
"Now she'll get her just due," he told The New York Times at the time. "As far as R&B and soul is concerned, she has no competition."
Clearly the plan worked: Arie added four more nods to her already-impressive string — to date, she has received 23 nominations, along with two more wins — and Voyage to India was awarded Best R&B Album Of The Year. "Little Things" also won a golden gramophone, beating out tracks by Erykah Badu and Common, Floetry, CeeLo Green, and Raphael Saadiq and D'Angelo in the then-inaugural Best Urban/Alternative Performance category.
But as the saying goes, the journey — or shall we say, voyage — is never really about the destination. And while Arie's sophomore album resulted in GRAMMY gold, the singer's titular voyage was ultimately one back to the essence of herself, even if its title happened to be lifted from an instrumental off her personal idol's 1979 soundtrack Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants."
"When I first got those GRAMMY nominations, I had chest pains…when I really should've been celebrating and enjoying," she reflected in her 2013 sit-down with Oprah. "But one of the things that I've worked my way out of doing…[is] comparing myself to other people. That just poisons everything. 'Cause your real job in the world is to be you."