"Every single artist in the Christian market dreams about making it in the general market. And if they say they don't, they're simply not telling the truth. It's a dream. I just feel so blessed that it came true for me..."
Nikki Turner's career began when she was twenty-three years old, newly married, with a baby daughter. "It was a fluke," she admits. "I had a friend in a high place and they put a good word in for me and everything just sort of happened from there." Her debut album, Never Known a Love released on New Year's Day, 1982, to the Christian market. Nikki describes her first record as "very safe. It was the standard Christian radio fare. Praise choruses, simplistic little things. Nothing I felt was extremely evangelical or extremely deep. But it was really not up to me what was on the record. They (the label) had this idea of what they wanted and it was my job to sing it. The Christian market can be very..." she pauses. "Constrictive, in a lot of ways. You have to play it safe, because it's a largely conservative audience that you're playing to. And at first, I could accept that, but the more I grew up and the more I experienced in my life and in the industry, the more it started to bother me."
Almost overnight, Nikki Turner was the darling of Christian music, with, in her words, "gooey" lyrics and "cheesy" melodies. "I had sort of become the poster child of the happy, 'Everything will be alright as long as you believe in Jesus!' sort of music and that wasn't the image I wanted to convey at all," Nikki admits. After the release of her fourth album, 1985's Forever Yours, she voiced her concerns to the label...and was given her walking papers. "It was not an amicable departure," she sighs. "They pretty much banished me from the very building, for saying that I wanted to say something more on my records. At the time, I was so angry that I had been booted because I wanted to think a little more freely than they were allowing me to think, but I've since made my peace with it. It was time to leave, anyway."
Her former label released a collection of her prior hits in 1987, the same year she signed with Star Song Records. "They seemed to get me a little more," Nikki relates. "They weren't about forcing me to sing these things that I really didn't feel in my heart. It was a wonderful change of pace for me." With that newfound freedom, Nikki began writing 1988's Trouble the Waters. More abstract than her previous records, with more ambiguous metaphors about love and more songs about real issues, such as pain, this was the record Nikki hoped would "break through the wall" of the general market. "It had always been a dream of mine," she smiles.
Upon the release of Trouble the Waters, the majority of Nikki's earlier fans revolted. It was not so much the less overt lyrics, it was the fact that Nikki Turner, their beloved role model, was going through a divorce. "Divorce remains one of the major taboos in Christian circles and it's something I can't understand. As Christians, we have no right to judge anyone, since we were not judged ourselves. We were forgiven and set free. Yet, the Christian market was very judgmental of my divorce. All of the sudden, I was a horrible person and...it was a horrible time for me, both personally and professionally. Everyone hated the record. It wasn't Christian enough, they said. I had sold out. I was evil. I was this, I was that. And what they didn't understand - and didn't want to, I don't think - is I was hurting. I was going through a very difficult time in my personal life and instead of offering me some compassion, they were kicking me while I was down. It was so hurtful."
Nikki is quick to clarify that her label was very supportive. "They were, in fact, the only ones in the entire industry to say, 'Hey, we're here for you.' Everyone else just sort of spit on me. Radio refused to play my songs, stores refused to carry my records. I was ready to give up. I was very depressed and I was trying to figure out what had all gone wrong in my life. It was a very hard time."
However, Nikki's luck began to change, due to yet another friend in a high place. "Micah and I were friends,", she begins, referring to the frontman of the Mullenese. "And I'm not quite sure what happened, but he said something to his general market label about me and all of the sudden, they were interested in distributing my singles to radio and my records to the stores and it just blew me away." "Make it Better," a song about letting go of pain and finding healing, was, ironically enough, the first of the Trouble the Waters singles to hit general market radio, something Nikki does not believe is a coincidence. "It's no accident that a song dealing with healing brought me some healing of my own. I really believe that was God's hand, reassuring me that there were other things in store for me and I couldn't give up just yet," she smiles.
In August of 1989, Nikki signed a two-album deal with JLN and will begin work on her general market debut in the new year. "It's amazing to me. I'm just so awed and humbled by the journey I've taken. Just to get here, it seemed to hard, but finally emerging on the other side is such a sweet feeling. I feel so blessed."
Almost overnight, Nikki Turner was the darling of Christian music, with, in her words, "gooey" lyrics and "cheesy" melodies. "I had sort of become the poster child of the happy, 'Everything will be alright as long as you believe in Jesus!' sort of music and that wasn't the image I wanted to convey at all," Nikki admits. After the release of her fourth album, 1985's Forever Yours, she voiced her concerns to the label...and was given her walking papers. "It was not an amicable departure," she sighs. "They pretty much banished me from the very building, for saying that I wanted to say something more on my records. At the time, I was so angry that I had been booted because I wanted to think a little more freely than they were allowing me to think, but I've since made my peace with it. It was time to leave, anyway."
Her former label released a collection of her prior hits in 1987, the same year she signed with Star Song Records. "They seemed to get me a little more," Nikki relates. "They weren't about forcing me to sing these things that I really didn't feel in my heart. It was a wonderful change of pace for me." With that newfound freedom, Nikki began writing 1988's Trouble the Waters. More abstract than her previous records, with more ambiguous metaphors about love and more songs about real issues, such as pain, this was the record Nikki hoped would "break through the wall" of the general market. "It had always been a dream of mine," she smiles.
Upon the release of Trouble the Waters, the majority of Nikki's earlier fans revolted. It was not so much the less overt lyrics, it was the fact that Nikki Turner, their beloved role model, was going through a divorce. "Divorce remains one of the major taboos in Christian circles and it's something I can't understand. As Christians, we have no right to judge anyone, since we were not judged ourselves. We were forgiven and set free. Yet, the Christian market was very judgmental of my divorce. All of the sudden, I was a horrible person and...it was a horrible time for me, both personally and professionally. Everyone hated the record. It wasn't Christian enough, they said. I had sold out. I was evil. I was this, I was that. And what they didn't understand - and didn't want to, I don't think - is I was hurting. I was going through a very difficult time in my personal life and instead of offering me some compassion, they were kicking me while I was down. It was so hurtful."
Nikki is quick to clarify that her label was very supportive. "They were, in fact, the only ones in the entire industry to say, 'Hey, we're here for you.' Everyone else just sort of spit on me. Radio refused to play my songs, stores refused to carry my records. I was ready to give up. I was very depressed and I was trying to figure out what had all gone wrong in my life. It was a very hard time."
However, Nikki's luck began to change, due to yet another friend in a high place. "Micah and I were friends,", she begins, referring to the frontman of the Mullenese. "And I'm not quite sure what happened, but he said something to his general market label about me and all of the sudden, they were interested in distributing my singles to radio and my records to the stores and it just blew me away." "Make it Better," a song about letting go of pain and finding healing, was, ironically enough, the first of the Trouble the Waters singles to hit general market radio, something Nikki does not believe is a coincidence. "It's no accident that a song dealing with healing brought me some healing of my own. I really believe that was God's hand, reassuring me that there were other things in store for me and I couldn't give up just yet," she smiles.
In August of 1989, Nikki signed a two-album deal with JLN and will begin work on her general market debut in the new year. "It's amazing to me. I'm just so awed and humbled by the journey I've taken. Just to get here, it seemed to hard, but finally emerging on the other side is such a sweet feeling. I feel so blessed."