Blessing Offor on Why His Music Feels Like Church Without Religion
Before he garnered a No. 1 at radio with TobyMac, performed on national television or earned an RIAA certification, Blessing Offor sat face-to-face with Chris Tomlin. Tomlin was interested in signing him to his label imprint. That’s when Offor decided to go ahead and reveal the possible deal-breaker: He’s a terrible worship leader.
“If you need me to be a worship leader, I’m not good,” he told Tomlin. “I don’t want to mess up someone’s worship. I don’t want to trip up anybody’s moment with God.”
Moved by Offor’s honesty and the soulful music he was already crafting, Tomlin countered with a proposition the Nigerian-born singer couldn’t refuse. “What if you’re just yourself?” Tomlin asked.
That was a direction Offor could get behind. He quickly signed on the dotted line and was soon featured on the renowned worship leader’s “Chris Tomlin & Friends” album, which showcased his original song, “Tin Roof.”
His debut, “My Tribe,” arrived at the top of 2023 and included his mainstream crossover hit, “Brighter Days.” Collaborations with artists, including Lauren Daigle, Benjamin William Hastings and TobyMac followed; and “The Goodness,” with TobyMac, even gave Offor his first No. 1.
RELATED CONTENT: Blessing Offor Serves Up Soulful Single, “Brighter Days”
Despite the warm embrace in Christian music, however; Offor’s music remains difficult to categorize. It oscillates somewhere between inspirational pop and bluesy roots music — all with spiritual undertones — yet it remains a little too mainstream for Christian and a little too Christian for mainstream. And that’s exactly the type of contradiction that has unlocked surprising doors for the singer-songwriter, like his recent stint opening shows for Robert Randolph & The Family Band.
“He’s an interesting cat, because he grew up in church; but he plays this rock ’n’ roll and blues music,” Offor says of Randolph as he sips a latte in the green room at the K-LOVE Studios in Franklin, Tennessee.
In addition to playing clubs and theaters, Randolph often performs in bars; and it was at one of these bars where Offor’s true calling became a little clearer. A woman came up to him after the show and asked him, “Why does your music feel like church without religion?”
Suddenly, Offor’s music was easy to label. “That night, I wasn’t paid with the expectation that I was going to bring you the Spirit. They brought me there to be a good musician, and I hopefully brought the Spirit anyway,” Offor says. “I think that’s my mission field.”
It turns out, Tomlin was right. Offor doesn’t need to be anyone other than himself, and that’s exactly who he’s showcasing on his recently released sophomore set, “Real.” Fans of his first album, however, shouldn’t expect more of the same. “I will not make the same record twice,” Offor vows. “That meant saying to all the people I work with, ‘Guys, if you’re looking for ‘My Tribe Number Two,’ it’s not this.’ Sonically, it meant reaching even further. It meant writing with new people and writing things that are scary to say.”
The fresh project boasts 16 tracks — all co-penned by Offor with a sundry roster of writers, including familiar faith-based names like Rita Springer, Joy Williams and Sandra McCracken, among others. Additionally, on the poignant “Somebody’s Child,” Offor collaborates with the incomparable Dolly Parton, the collection’s lone feature.
RELATED CONTENT: K-LOVE Conversation With Blessing Offor
Musically, his second full-length effort is a step forward, weaving a diverse tapestry of influences. Lyrically, it’s fearless, as Offor speaks aloud things most are too afraid to admit. “Making ‘My Tribe Number Two’ would have been the ‘smart move.’ Taking a risk is the stupid move,” he muses. “But if we’re not taking risks, what are we doing? I think it’s the move of an artist, I hope.”
A true artist, in every sense of the word, Offor wrote from a place of pain for most of “Real” as he grieved the loss of three important women in his life, who all passed away within nine months of one another: his sister, his best friend and his mother.
His mom died of an unexpected heart attack at the age of 65. Offor had been home to visit her just four months earlier. It was a monumental reunion, considering he hadn’t been back to his homeland of Nigeria in 25 years. The youngest of six siblings, Offor’s parents sent him to the U.S. when he was six, under the guardianship of an uncle, in the hopes of their son receiving critical treatment for congenital glaucoma in one eye. Just a few years later, however, Offor was completely blind following a water gun incident that injured the opposite eye.
“God, in His infinite goodness, allowed that circle to be completed. We spent four weeks together,” Offor says of his emotional homecoming. “[My mom] literally woke up one morning, and she and my dad had their Bible reading. They made breakfast. She got up to go to work and just had a massive heart attack. I was planning on coming back [to visit again] six months later.”
RELATED CONTENT: Blessing Offor Heads Home and Gives Back
While “Real” is undoubtedly a statement of grief, it isn’t void of hope. “I think, oftentimes, the tendency is for Christian music to preach vague positivity, but any victory that didn’t come with a cost isn’t true,” Offor contends. “You can’t win a war if you didn’t fight a war.”
Offor has asked his share of questions of God, and he still doesn’t have all the answers for his longing or the instant remedy for his heartache. Yet, by fashioning his pain into art, he hopes his new LP grants listeners space to grapple with the things they don’t understand in a way that, ultimately, leads them into the comforting arms of Jesus. “This record is full of the lessons of the last two-and-a-half years, and then some. It’s meant, very intentionally, to hold tension. That’s the purpose of the record,” he explains. “It’s not a record you’re supposed to listen to passively. You’re supposed to wrestle with it. I think wrestling is the point [of the Christian life], actually.
“If you’re wrestling, you’re still in the game,” he continues, leaning forward with urgency as if to emphasize the significance of his words. “You don’t have to have won the game. God doesn’t need you to do the end zone dance. He just needs you to not quit. He just needs you to let Him be strong in your weakness. He just needs you to know it’s not up to you. So long as you don’t quit, you’re winning.”
“Real” isn’t a celebratory touchdown. Instead, it’s a fourth-down decision. Offor musters the courage to be transparent, and he’s simply encouraging listeners to do the same. He doesn’t shy away from the dualities of life as he acknowledges the good with the bad, the blessing with the curse and the victory with the defeat. What he doesn’t do is sugarcoat life’s realities.
RELATED CONTENT: Blessing Offor Gets Gut-Level Honest on Vulnerable Song, “Believe”
“What we often end up doing is selling childish religion: world bad, church good. It’s easier to sell simplistic religion than it is to be honest. But if you sell black and white childishness, eventually, people will meet the truth, and they’ll feel like you lied to them,” he philosophically reflects. “Knowing that, I never want to make music that feeds that monster. I want my music to both tell you there is trouble and that trouble has been overcome.”
The transition from his debut to his sophomore endeavor came with its own set of joys and challenges. While Offor is immensely grateful for the experiences music has afforded him in only a short time, he’s quick to keep himself in check when it comes to measuring the true metrics of “Real.”
“You have to keep your heart separate from anything that might come from your efforts,” he says, adding, “That’s a really delicate balance. It has to be, otherwise you’re just living on the ups and downs of critics.”
So far, the reviews have been nothing short of glowing for “Real,” as Offor celebrated its release with a high-profile appearance on the “TODAY” show and performances at Stagecoach and CMA Fest.
Anchor track “Lift Me Up” reminds listeners of the power of community as he leans on others — and a mighty God — for help. He was on tour with Daigle and exhausted from a nonstop itinerary — the price of success — when he wrote the soaring single. “When you get to the top of the mountain, there’s another mountain,” he offers, having experienced this truth firsthand following the positive reception of “My Tribe.” “We are not the sum of all these numbers, or all these accolades, or all these applauses. We’re made of fears and hopes and dreams; and if you’re lucky, that’s what you know you’re made of.”
“Sometimes I feel like I just keep pretending, and I’m slowly going out of my mind,” he sings in the opening line of “Lift Me Up” before making another poetic confession in verse two: “I’ve been acting like a brave heart. I’ve been playing all their favorite parts, but it’s been heavy on my bones. It’s been weary on my soul.”
RELATED CONTENT: Blessing Offor Drops Anchor in the Divine on ‘Your Love’
Sunrise offering “The Morning” also serves up solace for the fellow worn-out sojourner. “Do you know the morning has never failed to come as far as I’m aware?” Offor says as he intros the song in-concert. “That’s a long track record of promise. So far, there’s always been a morning. The midnight hour is the turnaround. No matter how bad the night got, the sun is just as faithful as anything.”
It’s become a personal beacon of hope every day for the GRAMMY® nominee as he continues to mourn the triple loss of his loved ones and reconcile his sorrow in light of what he knows to be true about God.
Offor wants his new songs to be that “midnight hour turnaround” for others, a shining ray of light inching its way over the horizon. “I think I just want my music to live in people’s lives — to go through things with them,” he says, adding that he continues to take Tomlin’s advice. “All I can do is write and be as me as possible.”
