Luther Never Too Much

[Laurence Jabali]

WhilePorter highlights Vandross finding success in the music industry, she also focuses on what it was like for Vandross to navigate his music career while wrestling with questions about his weight and sexuality. The most interesting part of this documentary is watching media figures who interviewed him get visibly upset or frustrated when he decided not to disclose parts of his story. This reminded me of how entitled some folks feel to your narrative and how this was often the case for Vandross.

I can remember being a young child and seeing so much of myself when watching Luther Vandross\u2019 performances. From his smile to the ways that he carried himself on stage, I always thought Vandross possessed a special candor, one that often left so many people whispering about his identity and private nature behind his back.\n\n\n\nAdmittedly, when I learned via social media that there was going to be a documentary premiering at this year's Sundance about the late Grammy Award-winning composer, writer and singer, I immediately went to a place of concern. Considering what I thought I knew about the late creator, I was worried that this would be another film seeking to \u201cout\u201d him. More than anything, I kept asking myself, \u201cHow much of this film would be about the actual talent of the \u201cVelvet Voice\u201d and how much of the film would be spent speculating on the identity of a person who never felt safe enough to be their authentic self, both in entertainment and out in the world?\n\n\n\nHowever, in Dawn Porter\u2019s new documentary, Luther: Never Too Much, I was so grateful to see her balance care and intentionality in examining Vandross\u2019 story, making it a narrative about self-reflection, rather than projection. \n\n\n\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pNj9bXKGOiI\n\n\n\n\nIt was clear that Porter went into directing this documentary asking both herself and the world \u201cWhat is the true meaning of Vandross\u2019 legacy?\u201d in a world that often only recognized him for just his voice. The film reckons with the society\u2019s assumptions placed onto Black men who, like Vandross, appear to be \u201csoft\u201d in a world that prizes hypermasculinity.\n\n\n\n\n\nWhile Porter highlights Vandross finding success in the music industry, she also focuses on what it was like for Vandross to navigate his music career while wrestling with questions about his weight and sexuality. The most interesting part of this documentary is watching media figures who interviewed him get visibly upset or frustrated when he decided not to disclose parts of his story. This reminded me of how entitled some folks feel to your narrative and how this was often the case for Vandross. \n\n\n\nBut most importantly, it felt validating to watch Porter\u2019s work and see her examine the true impact that speculating on one\u2019s identity can have on an individual. For years, this was the case for Vandross and finally someone is showing the implications this had.\u00a0\n\n\n\nThough we may never fully know all of Vandross\u2019 story, what we do know is that his music and legacy is one that will always be one that centers love. Considering the times we are currently in, that will never be too much.\n\n\n\nAs someone who identifies as Black, fat, and femme, and who often found refuge in Vandross\u2019 work, I, too, dealt with many of the same issues Vandross struggled with in silence. Seeing Porter mention Vandross\u2019 issues with his body and the speculation around it helped validate my own struggle with the complexities of feeling hyper visible and invisible at the same time, and how painful it can be for the world to not actualize you beyond the scopes of your identity. Ultimately, Porter\u2019s film grapples with how the world's fixation on both his identity and sexuality made Vandross feel \u201cunlovable\u201d and consequently, the pain he often navigated. \n\n\n\nI departed the theater thinking, \"How could a man who sang some of the most beautiful love songs be so sad and lonely?\u201d and I immediately came back to the ways Vandross was never given the safety to be his authentic self. I quickly came to understand that songs like \u201cAny Love\u201d was a song about Vandross\u2019s wanting to be loved beyond what he looked like or how he identified. Or that the song \u201cWait for Love\u201d might have been about him feeling like he would never find the someone who would see past his imperfections. \n\n\n\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3aFaU1G3J5s\n\n\n\n\nPorter\u2019s work asks the viewer to evaluate the important question: Do we really want to know about someone's identity to continue perpetuating stigma or because we want to help someone find freedom, truth, and peace? \n\n\n\nThough we may never fully know all of Vandross\u2019 story, what we do know is that his music and legacy is one that will always be one that centers love. Considering the times we are currently in, that will never be too much. \n\n\n","thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/into-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2024\/02\/gettyimages-1217144096-scaled.jpg","image":"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/into-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2024\/02\/gettyimages-1217144096-scaled.jpg","height":1006,"width":1024,"creator":"Jonathan P. Higgins Ed.D.","author":"@type":"Person","name":"Jonathan P. Higgins Ed.D.","url":"https:\/\/www.intomore.com\/author\/jonathan-p-higgins-ed-d-3\/","articleSection":"Culture","keywords":[null,"post","Luther Vandross","Sundance"],"publisher":"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","name":"INTO","url":"https:\/\/www.intomore.com\/","logo":"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.intomore.com\/assets\/logos\/logo-black.png","height":"188","width":"102","address":"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"584 Castro St. #623","addressLocality":"San Francisco","addressRegion":"CA","postalCode":"94114","addressCountry":"USA","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/INTO","https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/into_tweets","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/INTOmore"]} Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock our articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Ahead of seeing \u201CLuther: Never Too Much,\u201D I expected I would mostly learn about the secret sauce behind the late Luther Vandross\u2019 many musical hits and perhaps hum along to my favorite ones. But in this in-depth look at his career, the documentary gives viewers unique insights into other aspects of Luther\u2019s life rarely seen in work meant to cover artists\u2019 professional achievements. Through the musical genius\u2019 experience, director Dawn Porter offers a profound meditation on major hurdles often faced by Black artists in a manner that is relatable to the experience of regular, not-famous Black people in the workplace.

The documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024. It highlights Luther\u2019s roots as a producer and songwriter with Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin, his relationship with other greats like Mariah Carey, whom he mentored, and David Bowie, who helped him cross over into mainstream pop. It also covers his struggle with lack of recognition and the pressure he experienced as the subject of media scrutiny due to his weight and society\u2019s expectations of masculinity, especially for a Black man with chart-topping records about love.

Black artists have long struggled to be justly recognized for their work, an experience Luther was way too familiar with. One scene in the documentary sequentially shows him gracefully waiting to hear his name called as a Grammy winner during the ceremony, followed by his face befallen by sadness, year after year, until he finally won one in 1991, 10 years after the academy nominated his chart-topping debut single Never Too Much for Best male R&B Vocal Performance. Another aspect of his struggle was about being recognized as having mass appeal, which could only happen if he weren\u2019t caged into Black categories like R&B and Soul by music executives. Back then, his music only played on Black radio (radio was very segregated). He would ultimately achieve this coveted crossover with critical acclaim through his album \u201CDance with My Father,\u201D which debuted atop the Billboard 200 charts and whose title track earned him a Grammy for Song of the Year.

The recognition around \u201CDance with My Father'' was unfortunately eclipsed by a massive stroke, which rendered him unable to celebrate this achievement in real time. Like the prior achievements, the documentary highlights how many of his milestones are intertwined with serious health struggles, notably regarding his weight. He clearly struggled with his weight and his relationship with food, yo-yo-ing between binge-eating when he was stressed and in pain, as he found comfort and relief in food, and extreme dieting when his weight and body image swung at the other side of his psyche. He also experienced tremendous pressure from societal expectations around his appearance and masculinity, mainly because his music was the subject of oh so many women\u2019s adulation. Jamie Foxx illustrates it perfectly in his interview for the documentary.

\\\"Back in the day, if you wanted to fall in love, you let Luther do the work for you,\\\" he says. \\\"So I would put the phone up to the radio \u2014 and what's crazy is you had to wait for it to come on the radio. \\\"So I would put the phone up to the radio and say, 'This is what I want to tell you.'\\\"

The moment in the documentary that best crystallizes the tension in what society expects of his appearance, given Luther\u2019s music, and the reality, is a snippet from an Eddie Murphy standup show routine, where he says, \u201CLuther Vandross is a big Kentucky Fried Chicken Eating motherfucker.\u201D The crowd erupts in laughter, and Murphy mimics Luther\u2019s singing and women\u2019s effervescent reaction to his voice. \u201CSing. That\u2019s all you gotta do is sing.\u201D

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