- One question has persisted as it relates to the multi-week No. 1 Billboard Star
- Blessing Offor, as he advances on his upward path to genre-less stardom.
- Could ‘Blessing’ be his real name after all?
Blessing Offor chuckles, In a recent interview “I literally just got off the phone with my dad the other day and we were talking about exactly this. “Yes, we named you correctly, he was admonishing. You are an asset. We’ve always known you’d be.”
Offer futher said that to the joy of everyone who has heard the virtual sunshine radiating off his vocals since coming onto the music industry back in 2020, the Nigerian-born, New York-raised, Nashville-bred native’s birth certificate does, in fact, carry the name “Blessing Offor.” Offor published his debut EP, Brighter Days, back in February after receiving cuts on the albums of everyone from Chris Tomlin to Lee Brice throughout the last turbulent years.
He accomplished this while being totally blind.
Offor, who was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma as a young child and completely lost his sight at the age of 11 due to an accident, advises others to “embrace it” if they are going through difficult times. “Look for the fruit that results from those difficult experiences after you have gone through them. To appreciate anything wonderful in your life, you must experience something difficult.”
Offor still draws inspiration for some of that beauty from the precious memories he has of his native Nigeria, where he lived before losing his sight.
When he left Nigeria, he claims, “I feel like my brain did this thing where it put all my memories on some type of hard drive or some sort of vault in my brain.” “You could really wander for miles and miles under a canopy of trees in Nigeria. You may stroll in the shade on a sunny day. There might be a few dappled rays of sunlight, but there is so much vegetation and woodland that you could stroll for hours in the shadow without really really feeling the sun until you choose to, you know?”
Offor moved to New York City as a teenager, then subsequently to Nashville to attend Belmont University to study music, and that light started to shine brighter on him. Today, Offor is getting ready to release his debut full-length album, My Tribe, in January.
Offor, who received a 2022 Dove Award nomination for new artist of the year, says of his music, “I feel like my music falls within what I term ‘the genre of humanity.'” “Anyone can enter this record and find himself there, in my opinion. I want people to sense its sincerity.”
It was an honesty that was mostly developed during the pandemic’s lockdowns and that can now be heard in songs like “Feel Good” and his most recent single, “Won’t Be Long Now.”
Offor, who will go on a tour with Christian rock musician Zach Williams in the coming year, believes that while the world was busy generating all the noise it enjoys, “this thing we all went through together made us all sit still.” “We must acknowledge that we are powerless. We base our life on the notion that we are in control, therefore I think it frightened out a lot of people. But the reality is that life has the ability to flip itself upside down at any time.”
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Offor is currently experiencing this situation in his professional career. Offor made his Grand Ole Opry debut back in October, and his performance was met with a number of standing ovations after he sang his song “Tin Roof” and his top-five smash “Brighter Days.”
Offor, who hung out backstage at the famed arena with people like Dierks Bentley and Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox, adds, “You know what’s weird is that I think being blind is a humbling thing for me. “When I’m performing on stage and hearing the audience’s response, whether it’s a standing ovation or something else, I simply have to tell myself in my head that I believe they enjoy it. Hopefully they are grinning.”
He chuckles.
“It would feel incredibly fantastic if I could watch the standing ovation from inside. But experiencing it is much cooler. That sensation is enchanted.”
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