Judith Hill

Judith Hill stands out for her expressive vocal range, songwriting skill, arranging instincts, and piano work, making her perhaps the sole artist whose résumé includes direct invitations from Elton John, Spike Lee, Prince, and Michael Jackson. After beginning as one of her generation’s most visible session vocalists in the early 2000s, she launched a solo path with material for Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer soundtrack in 2012. Subsequent releases have grown steadily more distinctive, encompassing the Prince-produced Back in Time in 2015, Golden Child in 2018, and Baby, I’m Hollywood! in 2021, all while her supporting contributions to other acts continued unabated. She appeared prominently in the Academy Award- and Grammy-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, which spotlighted the frequently overlooked contributions of backing singers. In 2024 she issued the self-penned Letters from a Black Widow.

Born to musicians Michiko Hill and Pee Wee Hill, she earned a music-composition degree from Biola University near her hometown of Los Angeles. Throughout the 2000s she accumulated background credits on projects by Anastacia, Robbie Williams, Evelyn “Champagne” King, and Rod Stewart. In 2009 Michael Jackson chose her to share the duet “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” for the planned This Is It concerts, and she later performed “Heal the World” at his memorial service. In the years that followed she supplied vocal support for Elton John, Gregg Allman, and Barry Manilow among many others. Her visibility increased sharply in 2012 and 2013 after she recorded for Red Hook Summer and then competed on The Voice, appeared on Josh Groban’s All That Echoes, and took part in 20 Feet from Stardom, which received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Grammy for Best Music Film.

During 2014 she contributed to an unusually wide array of sessions and earned another major nomination. Her calendar included dates with R&B veteran Calvin Richardson and electronic pioneer Mike Oldfield, and she co-wrote Iggy Azalea’s Jennifer Hudson collaboration “Trouble.” “Party Rockers,” which she wrote and sang for Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, received a Grammy nomination for Best Arrangement, Instruments, and Vocals. While still accepting supporting roles, she released the accomplished Back in Time in 2015 under Prince’s production and release. Maintaining a three-year cycle between albums, she issued the self-released Golden Child in 2018 and Baby, I’m Hollywood! in 2021. In the same stretch she recorded or performed with Prince on HITnRUN: Phase One, as well as with Johnny Mathis, Perry Farrell, and Hozier.

Hill teamed with GSHARP for a 2023 cover of Jesus Jones’ “Right Here, Right Now” and unveiled her own “Runaway Train,” which quickly became a concert fixture. She introduced the single “Flame” in January 2024 and confirmed plans for a new studio album; March brought the reflective, jazz-inflected “Dame de la Lumiere.” In April she delivered her fourth album, the autobiographical Letters from a Black Widow, which she composed, arranged, and performed on multiple instruments, several of them newly acquired after 2021, supported by her touring ensemble, additional session musicians, and backing vocalists.