Blind Christian Musician Blessing Offor: Music Helps Me Connect
By Movieguide® Contributor
Christian artist Blessing Offor recently opened up about his thoughts on music, his debut album, and the story behind his unique name.
Offor began playing the piano in the third grade, learning classical music. After his piano teacher noticed he was singing along to Beethoven’s “Fur Elise,” she got him into jazz music.
Around the same time, Offor went completely blind due to an accident, but music helped him continue to connect with the world.
“I always had a relationship with music, loved it,” he explained. “The hues and shadings in colors are limitless.”
He continued, “The thing about music is that it has this ability to transcend language and even understanding. You could listen to a K-pop song and have no idea what they’re saying, but something in it speaks to you. You can listen to a song in Spanish or Portuguese and beyond understanding exactly what they’re saying, something about it still emotes to you.”
The musician went on to say that he sees music “as a vehicle…to communicate with other people….music is a way that I can talk to anybody, anytime, always, whether or not they know my language or not.”
Offor recently released his debut album, My Tribe, which he said “took a lot of life experiences and journeys” to create.
“I thought, ‘I want to put out music that I don’t have to try to take back two minutes from now,’” he shared. “I was like, ‘I want to do it right, not do it now.’ [I was] just collecting this community of people from Connecticut to New York to Nashville to LA, to Nigeria, to everywhere in the middle that has just really loved me and supported me through all the ‘no’s’ that you inevitably run into as you’re doing this.”
While Offor is known for his incredible music, his name is also what makes him memorable.
“Blessing is a really common name in Nigeria,” he laughed. “Very unique here, but very common in most of Africa.”
Offor admitted that he didn’t like his name growing up, saying it was “too different” and “weird.” However, he later decided to “live up to” his name’s meaning.
“For me, you can’t be a blessing and wake up in the morning and hurt people. It’s very contradictory,” he explained. “My parents were like, ‘We wanted to make sure you knew what we thought of you and that is blessing.’ So it’s a high bar to meet on a daily basis. But we try our best.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Offor’s music:
Christian singer Blessing Offor recently opened up about his journey to the top of the Billboard charts as a blind musician.
Offor’s song “Brighter Days” made him a star, even earning him a spot performing at the Grand Ole Opry and a 2022 Dove Award New Artist of the Year nomination.
“I feel like my music falls into what I call ‘the genre of humanity,’” Offor explained. “I want anybody to walk into this record and find themselves within it. I want them to feel the honesty of it.”
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