Courtneys Got Talent Hit songwriter and America's Got Talent producer Courtney Harrell's seemingly impossible path from hardship to hard-won success.By
Kimberly Ashton
June 9, 2023
Courtney Harrell
Image courtesy of the artist
Courtney Harrell '01 remembers being about 11 or 12 years old when her mother, a gospel singer, started calling her up to the front of church congregations: She would point to me, and just say, Come up here,' while she was singing, and toss me the mic.
Her mom would do this at Faith Tabernacle Assembly, the Dorchester church where she and Harrell's father were co-pastors, and at the many churches where she was a guest singer. That was her way: She just threw me in the deep end, Harrell says. Her mother expected her not to just keep her head above water but to be able to plunge into its sonic depths and glide atop its buoyant surfaces. It's like, You're not learning, you're doing it, and you need to sing it like you wrote it,' Harrell remembers.
The message-this is your moment, take it-was one Harrell internalized as an invaluable lesson that has helped her have a successful career as a songwriter for some of the biggest names in the industry, as a teacher at Boston Public Schools, as a performer who's toured with John Legend '20H and landed in the top 10 on The Voice, and as a casting and lead producer for America's Got Talent (AGT).
It's a r sum many musicians would envy, and Harrell built it after becoming a mother at 17, while also often working jobs in retail and trying to become self-sufficient enough to get off welfare.
This spring, Harrell returned to Berklee to receive one of the handful of Alumni Achievement Awards the college gives out every year (see p. 8) and to participate in Career Jam. Berklee is home, she says. In March, while she was at her current home in Los Angeles as the next season of AGT got under way, she talked with Berklee Today about her unlikely path to success, her tips for songwriting, what she looks for in musicians she's casting for AGT, and what she calls the big fear.
The interview below has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
I want to talk a little about how you grew up. What was your early exposure to music? Was your family musical? My parents are pastors. My mom-incredible singer. Voice like Patti LaBelle ['96H] that soars through the air. She was the first one that I saw that was like a superhero in music. She would sing at the Gospel Night at the Pops. What is now TD Garden was the Fleet Center at one point, and the opening night they requested my mom to come and open the Fleet Center.
Everything I know about music, like songwriting, delivering emotion in song, comes from my father. He was a songwriter, too. I have memories of him calling me into a room where he's listening to Motown or whatever. [He'd say,] Do you hear phrasing? Do you hear how they delivered this line? The rhythm in this line?
There were times that a song would come to him at like 2, 3 in the morning, and he'd get me and my mom up and say, Wake up, wake up! I hear this! Sing this part! And then he'd record it in a tape recorder.
In addition to that, your dad was a social worker? Yes, he worked for-I think the name has since changed in the last two years-but at the time it was DARE Family Services.
Did your mom have a profession other than being a pastor? She was a homemaker. She had a home daycare for a while, and then started teaching in Boston Public Schools. She's still there to this day. She teaches children who are challenged, in fourth grade.
You were 15 when you entered Berklee's City Music program. Did you enroll at Berklee right after high school? I started at 20. [Before that] I thought, Oh, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm so tired of music. I wanted to study sociology, so I went to Brandeis University for a year. [Then] I was like, Ooh, no, I miss music. So I came back.
Tell me about your choice to major in music business if your passion was to be a performer and a writer. I wanted to be equipped, businesswise, to pursue the goal that I had of being a singer and a songwriter. Oftentimes, you'd find songwriters and singers who would get shafted because they didn't know the business. And I had a child; I couldn't afford that.
I wanted to ask about that. You had your son in high school, then you went to Brandeis, and then to Berklee. How did you manage that? I don't know. Jesus and family. And holding on to what was in my gut, that there's more, and now I have a reason to do it. My son was my reason to do it.
You're saying that your son motivated you in going to Berklee and in succeeding at Berklee? Absolutely, my son saved me. Most people would think, Oh, 17! You had a kid. Oh, how unfortunate! You know, your life is over. Dylan gave me my life. Because prior to him I was talented, but I was terrified of the world. my esteem or belief in myself was it wasn't there. But [after his birth] I had someone I had to do it for.
I hid my pregnancy for seven months. I was just afraid. But I would talk to him in my womb, I would tell him I loved him. I didn't see a doctor until I was almost eight months, and then I went into silent labor at eight months.
What is silent labor? You're having a baby but you don't feel it. So I would tell him, Dylan, you are born to do the impossible, because this is crazy. But I can't tell you that if I'm not able to do what's possible for me, which looks impossible to most. So now I have to do it to show you who you are.
What part of it do you think looks impossible to most? Teen mom, going to college, full scholarship, raising your kid, putting your kid through college, touring the world, writing for some of the bi
