Singer Melanie Fiona finding inspiration on tour with Mary J. Blige, D’Angelo

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“It may be a conflict between art and business sometimes, absolutely,” says Melanie Fiona. “But I feel like I just have to stay on my path and not veer off that and not compete with people who aren’t running the same race as I am.”

Wise words for any recording artist. Because, in the immortal words of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, “Yes, there are two paths you can go by.”

Fiona is in clear view of both, as the opening act for Mary J. Blige and D’Angelo today at the Palms. She was all set up to tour with Blige, she explains, when the re-emergence of D’Angelo added a new curiosity value to the R&B bill.

“Watching both these artists, it’s like seeing church happen,” says the singer whose own confessional hits include “It Kills Me” and “4 AM.” “It’s like seeing people really receive something. You see people in tears because you know there’s a song they’re hearing that changed their life.”

“That’s the biggest lesson that I could learn from both of them. … Seeing how powerful that is. Seeing how great that is.”

■ Path One: Blige, who has ridden out career ebbs and flows since “What’s the 411?” in 1992. An angry young woman mellowing into an empowered R&B queen with a steady output; a new album every few years, enough for a collective 50 million album sales.

“Watching her and seeing her do what she does is just inspiring alone,” the 29-year-old Fiona says of the 41-year-old headliner. “She is a testament to just staying true to who you are.”

Blige “has been no stranger to putting it out there for the world to know her story, her struggle,” Fiona says. “That is so inspiring. Because it takes guts. It’s easy to sing about surface stuff. It’s easy to say, ‘Let’s go to the club and party. Woo-hoo!’ ”

■ Path Two: D’Angelo, who apparently buckled under the success of 1995’s “Brown Sugar” and 2000’s “Voodoo,” pulling a vanishing act broken only by run-ins with the law.

Now he is reintroducing himself, and positive reviews from early tour stops give fans confidence this is no Toni Braxton thing.

“I just met him for the first time and he was lovely, he was very nice to me,” Fiona says, assuring the younger singer, “You’re killing it every night.

“What I’ve learned about him is his process of what it’s like to be out there as an artist, and be huge – at the top of that neo-soul market – and then for him to disappear. And then come back. And come back with a passion and a fire and performing a great show.

“That alone, again, as an observer, as an artist – watching that is a lesson in itself. When you love what you do and you’re destined to do it, there’s nothing that can stop you from doing it. The people that believe in you are always going to believe in you.

“And that’s the type of people I want to listen to my music. The people that understand that I am human. And sometimes as artists and humans, we might need a few years off to figure out some stuff.”

■ Path Three: Her own. In two years and as many albums, the Toronto native has put Fiona into the big leagues of collaborators, recording “Fool for You” with Cee-Lo Green and opening tours for Kanye West and Alicia Keys.

“It is really just about making a solid body of work,” she says. “These are great artists that come with weight when it comes to their musicianship and their musicality and their careers. It’s great company to be in.”

Audiences have to be punctual to hear Fiona this time. But she says crowds have been there for her. The fans are “true music lovers,” there to hear three singers who share common traits of organic music – real instruments playing the songs – and lyrical honesty.

“There’s just so many things people rely on in the actual music industry to be the thing that people recognize,” she says. “Truthfully, it’s usually not their voice. … That is hard, I do struggle with it, because I do rely completely on the talent of my voice.

“So I just do what I do, I just sing,” she says. “I just make the music I think I like and I think people will like and be able to like for a lifetime, and give people something emotionally to take from the music.”

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at
mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.