Vivian Green: I’m Beautiful

After writing for Britney Spears, Boyz II Men and singing back-up for Jill Scott, Philadelphia born and bred Vivian Green pulled on to the music scene in 2002 in an “Emotional Rollercoaster,” the top track from her debut album Love Story. Three years later while carrying son Jordan, now almost 6-years-old, and patiently waiting while mommy shops and chats, Vivian gave us “Gotta Go, Gotta Leave,” one of the best break-up songs ever from her sophomore release, Vivian. But these songs no longer tell the tale of Vivian’s life today. Her latest release Beautiful, in stores now, reveals a renewed, more resilient Vivian that could only have been born out of triumph over many trials and tribulations.

On the album’s title track and new single “Beautiful,” Vivian gives a non-hostile hand to a relationship she gave her best shot, harboring no hard feelings. “It’s a positive take on a break-up. Some of the songs on the last record were so angry, and I didn’t want to go there this time,” says Vivian. Many of the album’s themes reflect Vivian’s growth and the healthy place that she lives in today, whether it’s learning something new like staying together as in the track “I Know,” cut with Jason Farmer ( Keyshia Cole, Rhianna, Wyclef Jean ) to the powerful man-up message in “Better Man” sung in a tone that reads tsk tsk, yet begs the question, really?  “That’s just how I feel right now,” says Vivian. The witty and biting melodies of Beautiful are set over sometimes intense, sometimes delicate ballads, giving her fans a glimpse of where she’s been, how she’s come back and where she plans to go from here.

“I’m at a stage in my life where I’m learning to look at everything that’s beautiful, even if someone may look at it differently.”

Her new album, said to have been approached in a more intimate and organic manner than her previous projects, is not the only thing that has her radiant inside and out.  Her son is reward to some of her more serious challenges. Through all the relationship drama with her son’s father, drummer from the “Emotional Rollercoaster” video, who is not a part of her life today, Vivian also went through the fear of not knowing whether her son Jordan would live past his first week of life. Ill with a syndrome unknown to doctors and born severely under weight, Vivian was told things like his skeletal and cardiovascular systems were underdeveloped among other conditions, and that he should undergo surgery soon after birth. Yet, through hard work, home schooling, and the Most High, Jordan thrives today and performs past his kindergarten level. It was through these hardships that Vivian has faced with her son that’s given her strength to endure almost anything, and gain a new outlook on life. “I’m at a stage in my life where I’m learning to look at everything that’s beautiful, even if someone may look at it differently.”

Viv’s all about family these days. As a matter-of-fact, she collaborated with her younger brother, Solomon Green, on 4 of the album’s songs, and little Jordan’s vocals can be sampled on the track “Jordan’s Song”. Though Jordan is her main man, he’s not her only man. When asked about love today and whether she has anyone special, Vivian excitedly answers, “I do I do! I have somebody very special in my life.”

To purchase/download “Beautiful” please visit itunes.com. For more information on Vivian Green please visit www.viviangreen.com and make sure you follow Vivian on Twitter @iamviviangreen.