Meet Ané – Feel the Love
“THIS IS A MAN’S WORLD… BUTTT!”
By Joan S. Peck
Who is this icon who spent 26 years with the iconic Shirelles? Singer, songwriter, and consummate performer, Ané has traveled the world, meeting and sharing the stage with her childhood idols like Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Coasters, Drifters, and many others. Now she has a new show that is tearing the house down!
“This Is A Man’s World…Buttt!” is Ané’s new show that she created, produced, arranged, and stars in. The songs, costumes, orchestra, singers, and dancers will have you jumping out of your seat as you take this exciting stroll down memory lane. “I take the music that most men recorded but perform them in a female voice.”
Where did this Music Legend – Black Music Awards Recipient grow up? “I grew up on East Alpine Street in Newark, New Jersey, in a non-musical family. I didn’t even sing in the church choir. Nothing around me made me a singer …God made me a singer.”
How did she know she wanted to become a singer? “When I was young, around four or five, I noticed that the birthmark on the bottom of my foot looked like a little elf with musical notes coming out of him. So I told myself, ‘God wants me to be a singer!’”
When she was in 8th grade, her chorus teacher picked Ané and two other girls to audition for the talent show, and they won! Ané sang in the school choir in high school but didn’t have the time to participate in musical projects because she worked after school. No one knew about her wanting to be a singer, but she always knew she would be one. After she kept dreaming that she was performing, she told herself, “You’ve got to go sing.”
One day, Ané got up the courage to tell a fellow employee, a man who sang with Cissy Houston (Whitney’s mother), that she wanted to sing. He set up an appointment, and they got together, and “I was in for life.”
“While rehearsing with gospel heavyweight Donnie Harper, he asked me, “Do you write songs?”
I said, “No, I don’t write songs.”
He said, “Yes, you do. Now go home and write a song,” he urged.
She wrote the song “In Another Time and Place,” launching her career as a songwriter.
After working 21 years with PSE&G, Ané took an early buyout to have enough money to make her first CD, “My Story – Vol. 1,” on her own record label. This CD made its way to the U.K. and established Ané as a bonafide, independent recording artist and songwriter. Blues & Soul Magazine began writing articles about Ané and her music. That is when the U.K. and Ané fell in love, and they’ve been in love ever since!
Why did she move to Las Vegas in 2004? Ané laughs, “The snow in New Jersey and the high property taxes.”
Ané has received numerous awards from Las Vegas Black Music Awards, including Music Legend. In 2017, Ané was inducted into the Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame, and in 2021, she released “Learning to Love Myself – Vol. 2”, whose song, “Any Time, Any Place,” won her the #67 spot on the U.K.’s The Top 100 Best of 2021.
What’s the best thing she likes about performing?
“It’s that I’m giving love and sharing all that I have. I don’t hold back anything, and I’m free to do things I don’t know I’m doing. I love the exchange with the audience. I want people to feel good, and I believe that’s my assignment – a divine assignment. When I’m performing, I’m fulfilling that with the language from my soul, going beyond the words.
I’m so thankful that I have the connection and gift of song, and it connects to the hearts of people.”
Lucky for us in Las Vegas to have Ané Marshall (formerly Shirley Marshall) with us here now. You can Meet Ané and Feel the Love for yourself by going to see “This Is A Man’s World….Buttt!” at The Smith Center, February 20, 2022.
Contact Info:
www.anesings.com
ane@anesings.com
Smith Center Tickets:
702.749.2000
Order Tickets Here