Tony-winning star Renée Elise Goldsberry unveils her debut solo album Who I Really Am on June 6, led by the fierce, genre-blending single “Staring.”
Renée Elise Goldsberry, celebrated for her electrifying Broadway turns and soulful on-screen performances, has taken the leap into fully owning her musical identity with Who I Really Am, her debut solo album set to arrive June 6.
Accompanied by the fierce first single “Staring,” released April 25, Goldsberry delivers a daring, genre-shifting manifesto that nods to her gospel beginnings while channeling soul, funk, blues and pop into one seamless statement of self. After decades of bringing other composers’ stories to life—from Rent to Hamilton—she now invites us into her own narrative, crafting songs that embrace vulnerability, humor and the unvarnished joy and pain of her journey.
When PEOPLE broke the news on April 25, it revealed that Goldsberry’s long-awaited first studio album, Who I Really Am, will drop on June 6, marking a major career milestone for the Tony and Grammy winner.
Though best known for breathing life into characters penned by others, Goldsberry insists this project is “the soundtrack of my life,” a collection unafraid to foreground her own voice.
“Staring,” which hit streaming platforms on April 25, opens the album with a sonorous blast of belty blues, “brimming with passion, humor and the thrill of instant connection,” per the official press materials. Goldsberry describes the track as “a proud outlier” that captures the album’s unapologetic diversity—proof that leaning into her instinctive flair made the song soar.
Goldsberry confesses she once tried to “dial the stylization back to make it play nicer with others,” but ultimately found that “what makes the song different is what makes it great,” embracing an approach where “the exception [becomes] the rule.” The genesis of the album itself sprang from the dissonance she felt hearing a bio that celebrated achievements but omitted struggles—prompting her to put pen to paper and share every shade of her story.
Drawing on her church-raised gospel foundation, Goldsberry threads together R&B, funk, pop and singer-songwriter balladry, nodding to idols such as Sarah Vaughan, Roberta Flack and Tina Turner, alongside late-’90s Lilith Fair vibes. A standout collaboration arrives in the form of “Don’t Want to Love You,” a song gifted by her Girls5Eva co-star Sara Bareilles, which Goldsberry says “fits into this body of work seamlessly.”
Born January 2, 1971, in San Jose, California, and classically trained at Carnegie Mellon (BFA) and USC (MM in Jazz Studies), Goldsberry is an EGOT-adjacent powerhouse whose awards cabinet includes a Tony, a Drama Desk and a Grammy. She shot to global fame originating Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton (2015–16), earning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and contributing to the Best Musical Theater Album Grammy.
Beyond the stage, she’s won acclaim on television in One Life to Live, The Good Wife and, most recently, as Wickie Roy in Peacock’s Girls5Eva, demonstrating her versatility across mediums.
As countdowns begin, fans can anticipate June 6 as the day Renée Elise Goldsberry fully uncovers herself through music for the first time—an album poised to redefine her artistry and, perhaps, chart a blueprint for actors turned singer-songwriters everywhere.
In an era craving authenticity, Goldsberry’s debut stands as both an homage to her storied past and a bold proclamation of her present: unfiltered, unafraid and unmistakably her own.
source PEOPLE
