Deborah Denise is a singer, songwriter, producer, keyboard player and vocal arranger. She was born in Jackson, MS and raised in Indiana. At the tender age of three she would come home from church and copy some of the notes on the piano and sing songs that she heard in church that day. By her sixth birthday she was playing childhood tunes by ear.
Deborah Denise was groomed on the likes of Shirley Caesar, Rance Allen, Beau Williams, Commissioned and John P. Kee. Deborah Denise's angelic, yet powerful voice, filled with smooth harmonies and Hip-hop rhythms lifts your spirit to praise. Her singing has been known to bring tears to people's eyes as it reaches the depths of the listener’s heart primarily because of the Holy Spirit’s influence. Her goal is to always be submitted under the mighty hand of Christ; so that she can always be a useful tool for him. Staying close to God is her first priority.
People commonly think that the harmonies that she performs in her songs are created with the use of harmonizers. Deborah Denise still creates her harmonies the old fashion way by finding the notes and by singing them one at a time. She also chooses to mix her own tracks; especially the vocals. Every time someone compliments her on her songs or voice, she modestly says "All glory be to God, I'm just his tool an empty vessel".
Even though she professed Christ at an early age Deborah Denise also flirted with the world. Over the years she has performed both gospel and secular music in a band, a quartet, a duo and as a solo artist. She eventually became disassociated with the church after it became apparent that the leadership of her home church was involved in various sins and hypocrisy that she could no longer ignore. This would eventually lead to her backsliding to the world and performing secular music. She was offered many independent record deals and a couple of major record label deals but realized after reading the fine print that the major label deals weren’t good enough and was actually going to cost her a lot more in the end than she was willing to pay. So, unbelievably she walked away and gave up music!
Over time she was able to once again open her heart fully to Jesus Christ and the gospel. Years later she felt that the Lord was once again calling her to make the type of music that he called her to make years earlier which is what she is now doing. Musically one thing that separated her music from many other singers is the fact that she typically likes to sing to rap or hip hop beats. She says that “rap tracks are hot” and get her creative juices flowing. Her goal is to bless as many people as possible with Christ centered music. Deborah Denise has done many collaborations with many up and coming as well as established Christian rappers and singers. She has also opened for Jazz musician David Wells as well as the hip hop pioneer and minister Kurtis Blow. Lately she has been busy composing and producing many new music tracks.
Deborah Denise says “Since God has opened my eyes and healed my broken heart and bound up my wounds I’m ready to live for and even die for him if that‘s his will. He set me free and I will never forget all his benefits, I’m ready to be all that Jesus created me to be, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”