Some singers have such beautiful voices that hearing them can move you to tears. Heather Headley has such a voice. Many may know her from her broadway roles in The Lion King and Aida. I first heard her in Aida and was immediately taken with the rich, deep tones of her voice. There is raw emotion present when she sings, the kind of emotion that makes you stop what you’re doing and just listen.

One night, I saw that PBS was broadcasting an Andrea Bocelli concert that I had not seen. We turned it on and cranked up the volume. I didn’t know at the time that Heather Headley would be appearing for a duet. When she and Bocelli began this song, my partner and I both looked up from our books. The volume was turned up even higher. After they finished, we looked at each other and both of us had tears in our eyes. The song itself was beautiful, but when sung by these two artists, it moved us beyond words.

My parents bought my partner the DVD of the concert and it has been watched a lot, especially by me. For a reason I can’t explain, this song opens up a part of my brain that other music can’t. I often listened to it while I was writing my thesis. I’d be stuck, struggling for the words I needed to explain my text. This song would come on, I’d stop, listen to it, often repeating it several times, and suddenly the fog would lift from my brain. I found myself pounding out my thoughts, my hands barely able to keep up with my brain. Though other music often distracted me, this song became my muse when I wrote.