From the Aremuorin archive: a personal Macy Gray memory, revisited.
I have long remembered Macy Gray as one of the warmest artists I encountered. During a trip to Los Angeles, she arranged for her hairstylist to come to my hotel and do my hair, then invited me to her concert.
That generosity followed an earlier meeting in London, where Macy gave me an extended live interview and invited me to spend time with her after her KOKO performance. What stayed with me was not simply access to a famous artist, but the ease, trust and humanity of the encounter.
A story that began in 2012
The interview behind this story actually took place in 2012. Macy Gray generously gave me around an hour of her time in London. When I later tried to place that interview with major media organisations, the response I encountered left me deeply discouraged. I experienced that period as my first serious encounter with hostility towards Black voices and Black stories in that part of the media world.
The experience stayed with me, but it also helped change my direction. Rather than waiting for somebody else to provide a platform, I became determined to build my own. That journey became part of the story of MercyfulGrace.
This 2017 post was therefore not the beginning of my connection with Macy. It was a revisiting of a story that had already shaped my creative life. I would return to it again in 2026, looking at Macy not only as an artist I admire, but as someone whose generosity and enduring legacy became intertwined with the history of my own platform.
Macy Gray and Stripped
This archive post originally celebrated Macy Gray around the release of Stripped. Her unmistakable voice and individuality were already well established, but the project offered another reminder of why her work has endured.
The story continued
Years later, I revisited the story in a fuller feature covering I Try, Macy’s music, our meetings in London and Los Angeles, her charitable work, new music and her 2026 tour.
By Aremuorin
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