by Jennifer Jonassen

I had one of the biggest thrills of my life last week when I had the chance to speak with Martha Wash about her phenomenal life and career. It all started a few weeks ago when I introduced my little sister to the music video for "It's Raining Men". I realized that she was one of the first images out there of a sexy larger woman. Probably the only one I was exposed to as a child of the seventies! So needless to say I knew I just had to interview her.  I am happy to report that Ms. Wash is just how you would expect and want her to be: warm, wise, strong and gifted with a remarkable sense of humor! She very graciously and candidly recounted both the triumphs & trials she has faced in her career including being passed over for the famous C&C Music Factory video (in which Zelma Davis lip synchs)  "Gonna Make You Sweat." 

JJ: I can't tell you how excited and thrilled we are to be interviewing you! You are a bona fide Goddess and I feel honored to be speaking with you. I know you have a lot going on right now so fill us all in.

MW: Well I am working on new music, and I am right in the middle of filming a new T V pilot; it's a comedy. I am also working on an animation project.

JJ: How exciting I can't wait to see you on screen! I look forward to them. When will they come out?

MW: Very soon.

JJ: Ok Martha, I am going to just dive right in. Would you like to share your experiences dealing with size discrimination in the entertainment industry? Is it true that they didn't want you to appear in the C&C Factory video?

MW: "Gonna Make You Sweat" was the first single off of the album. They released it first before the album was finished and what happened was that it became a huge hit and the album wasn't ready. You know you have to take advantage when the opportunity strikes, so they ended up shooting the video with Selma Davis. The funny thing was that I happened to see the video on TV.

JJ: Is that how you found out?

MW: Yes, that is how I found out. Needless to say we had to do some legal wrangling and it all worked out in the end. Because I ended up doing the second song with them, "Do You Want To Get Funky," I appeared in that video.  And I went on to record with them on their second CD, so it all worked out in the end. But you have to get the legal stuff out of the way and move on.

JJ: So do you think they wanted a different image in the video or do you think they were just trying to get out a video fast?

MW: Probably a little bit of both. But the thing was my voice was recognizable.

JJ: It sure is! Do you face a lot of discrimination because of size?

MW: I would probably go back to when I sang with Two Tons of Fun when we were back up singers for Sylvester. He put the group together with another friend of mine. He asked me if I knew of another singer who was my size and I said yes, so the record company didn't quite know what to do with us; I believe it was because of our size.  So we were just novelty artists: two large women who sing. But the bottom line was that we were two large women who could really sing! During that time if you remember, you did not see large women on TV; only opera singers and perhaps... nobody else. But in the mainstream music world you really did not see large women.

JJ: We still don't see that many now... I think it is just beginning to change.