H.E.R. Religion

What religion is H.E.R.?

H.E.R. is an American R&B singer-songwriter and actress who is a practicing Christian. H.E.R. has collaborated with Christian worship artist Tauren Wells on the gospel-inspired track “Hold Us Together (Hope Mix).” The track features both vocalists blending their styles on a faith-based anthem about God’s faithfulness.

H.E.R. signed with RCA Records in 2016 and released H.E.R. Volume 1, followed by H.E.R. Volume 2 and The B Sides. Her self-titled compilation album, H.E.R. (2017), peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy Awards for Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance for “Best Part” with Daniel Caesar. Her second compilation album, I Used to Know Her (2019), reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and received five Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year for “Hard Place.”

H.E.R. won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year with “I Can’t Breathe” and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Fight for You” from Judas and the Black Messiah. She also received a Children’s and Family Emmy Award for her contribution to We the People and made her acting debut in Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration before appearing in The Color Purple (2023). Among her numerous career achievements, H.E.R. has received five Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Children’s and Family Emmy Award, and numerous nominations from the Golden Globe Awards, American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and BET Awards.

Early life

H.E.R., whose real name is Gabriella Wilson, was born on June 27, 1997, in Vallejo, California, to a Filipino mother, Agnes, and an African American father, Kenny, who was a member of the soul band Urban Bushmen. She began singing at age five and by age seven was playing instruments and performing background vocals while watching her father practice. Her parents supported her musical development, and she later published her first poetry collection at age eight. By age nine she performed piano at the Apollo Theater in New York, and as a child she appeared on The Today Show singing Alicia Keys’s “If I Ain’t Got You,” which helped bring her to the attention of Keys, who became her mentor. In 2011, at 14, Wilson signed a record deal with Sony’s RCA Records via J Records.

Career beginnings

In 2014, Wilson released her debut single “Something to Prove” under her birth name through RCA Records. In 2016, she adopted the stage name H.E.R., an acronym for Having Everything Revealed, and released her debut EP, H.E.R. Volume 1, entirely anonymously in September 2016, concealing her identity in all promotional materials. Artists including Rihanna, Usher, and Pusha T shared the project publicly after its release. She followed with H.E.R. Volume 2 in February 2017 and H.E.R. Volume 2: The B Sides in May 2017. Forbes publicly confirmed her identity as Gabriella Wilson in November 2017. Later on, she released two further EPs, such as I Used to Know Her: The Prelude in August 2018 and I Used to Know Her: Part 2 in October 2018, before compiling them into two full-length projects: H.E.R. in 2017 and I Used to Know Her in 2019.

H.E.R. EP

The self-titled compilation H.E.R., released in 2017, peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200 and won Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance for “Best Part” with Daniel Caesar at the 61st Grammy Awards in 2019. The compilation I Used to Know Her debuted at number one on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart in 2019 and contained “Hard Place,” which earned her first BET Award and Grammy nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. All three of her full-length recording projects have been nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

Grammy success

H.E.R. has won five Grammy Awards in total. She won Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance at the 61st Grammy Awards in 2019. At the 63rd Grammy Awards in 2021, she won Song of the Year for “I Can’t Breathe,” a justice-minded track addressing Black pain and police brutality that debuted in June 2020 during the anti-racism protests following George Floyd’s death and Best R&B Song for “Better Than I Imagined” with Robert Glasper. At the 64th Grammy Awards in 2022, she won Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Fight for You” from the 2021 film Judas and the Black Messiah and a Children’s and Family Emmy Award, while also receiving nominations for a Golden Globe, three American Music Awards, and four Billboard Music Awards. Additionally, Apple Music named her Songwriter of the Year for 2021 and has since received 23 Grammy nominations across her career.

Acting career

H.E.R. made her first on-screen appearance at age nine in the Nickelodeon television film School Gyrls, directed by Nick Cannon in 2009. She then appeared as herself in the Netflix film Yes Day in 2021. She wrote and performed “Change” for the Netflix animated series We the People, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, which won her a Children’s and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Program in 2022. She performed “America the Beautiful” while playing guitar at the pre-game show of Super Bowl LV in February 2021. She starred as Belle in ABC’s Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration, which aired December 15, 2022. She made her feature film debut as Mary “Squeak” Agnes in The Color Purple, released December 25, 2023, receiving Screen Actors Guild and Critics’ Choice Movie Award nominations alongside the cast. She joined Usher’s Super Bowl LVIII halftime performance in February 2024, playing electric guitar. She sang the US national anthem during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on August 11, 2024. In October 2025, DreamWorks announced she would voice Jo in the animated film Forgotten Island, set for release September 25, 2026.

H.E.R. made her first on-screen appearance at age nine in the Nickelodeon television film School Gyrls, directed by Nick Cannon in 2009. She then appeared as herself in the Netflix film Yes Day in 2021. She wrote and performed an original song called “Change” for the Netflix animated educational series We the People, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, which aired in July 2021 and won her a Children’s and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Program in 2022. In February 2021, she performed “America the Beautiful” while playing guitar at the pre-game show of Super Bowl LV. She returned to acting in 2022 as Belle in the Disney musical television special Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration, performing alongside Josh Groban. In 2023 she made her feature film debut as Mary “Squeak” Agnes in Blitz Bazawule’s musical film adaptation of The Color Purple, a role that previously belonged to Rae Dawn Chong in the 1985 version, and the cast was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and won an NAACP Image Award. That same year, she sang the national anthem at Game 1 of the 2023 World Series.

In October 2023, H.E.R. made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live, performing “The Glass” with the Foo Fighters. She then joined Usher’s Super Bowl LVIII halftime performance in February 2024, playing electric guitar. Subsequently, she sang the US national anthem during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on August 11, 2024, as part of the handover to Los Angeles. In October 2025, DreamWorks announced she would voice Jo, a lead character in the animated film Forgotten Island, set for release on September 25, 2026.

2026 studio return

H.E.R.’s debut studio album, Back of My Mind, released June 18, 2021, remains her only full-length studio project to date. The album peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, with its single “Damage” topping the US R&B radio chart in June 2021. It featured collaborations with Lil Baby on “Find a Way,” Ty Dolla Sign on the title track, Thundercat and Kaytranada on “Bloody Waters,” and YG on “Slide.” In September 2025, she confirmed to Us Weekly she was working on new music and was “almost to the finish line.” As of mid-2026, no release date or title for her second studio album has been publicly confirmed.

Personal life

H.E.R. identifies as a Black woman despite her biracial Filipino and African-American heritage. She founded the Bring the Noise Foundation to provide instruments and music instruction to young musicians in Bay Area communities.

Beyond music, she founded the Bring the Noise Foundation for Bay Area youth and launched the Lights On Festival in Concord, California. As of February 2024, she is under new management with Lighthouse Management and Media, focusing on achieving EGOT status following wins at the Grammys, Oscars, and Emmys.