Helen Baylor

Baylor was a guest of local philanthropic group “Is There Not a Cause” (ITNAC), a charitable missions based non-profit organisation, seeking to raise funds for various charitable initiatives.

She performed last Monday at the St John Ambulance Brigade, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain to help raise funds for the organisation to be able to finance the acquisition of a transition house.

“It was great performing for such a worthy cause, I think we slam dunked it,” she said.

Baylor has been singing for over 40 years and been involved in gospel music for 20 years. This is her fifth visit to Trinidad.

She believes she was pre wired with music as she loved it from a little child growing up.

“My parents loved music, they were always playing it in the house and they were young parents, and from there I guess my love for music kind of grew,” she said. After spending her early formative years attending church with her grandmother in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Baylor began singing in nightclubs in the Los Angeles, California, at the age of 13.

Helen went on to record her first single at 13 and became an opening act for artists such as Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and others.

Baylor spent most of her young adult years chasing her dream of becoming a star but was caught in a web of alcohol and drugs by her 18th birthday.

She greatly credits the prayers of her grandmother, the late Mother Minnie Hudson, for her return to the God of her childhood.

In 1993, Baylor was ordained to the Gospel Ministry by Dr Frederick KC Price and in February 1995 received an honorary doctorate in Sacred Music from Friends International Christian University, in Merced, California.

She explained what she loves most about her career is that fact that she is able to minister to people through music.

“Before the spoken word is delivered, I am asked to set the atmosphere and I do that with my music and I think it is the most important job that I can do,” she said.

Her first CD entitled Highly Recommended was released in 1990 and she released nine more with the most recent being in 2006.

Baylor lives in the Atlanta, Georgia area with her husband James Baylor; she is also the mother of three sons and one daughter.

She hopes the next time she visits Trinidad she can have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the local artistes.

“I would love to maybe record with these talented people, I hope the next time I come I would have more time to do that,” she said.

Baylor said that although she would describe herself as a sensitive person others may describe her as serious.

“I have heard people say that I am too serious and it may be because I take what I do to heart. I believe that if God called you, you must do your best but even though I act serious I am not,” she said.

Baylor revealed that she is currently in the pre-production stages of a live album that she plans to release later on this year.

“I am also in the pre-production stages of a movie of my life which is based on a book that I did called No Greater Love, the Helen Baylor story which deals with my life from the time I was born up until a few years ago and I share my testimony,” she said.

“I am going to reach out to the world, for them to see that God is real,” she said.

She shared some advice for young people who want to pursue their dreams of being a gospel singer.

“Just make sure if you want to do gospel music, God has called you, it would not work if he did not.”