Alexis Spight, with her fiery red hair and golden voice, was a favorite of both the judges and audience during Season Five of BET’s Sunday Best. While she came up just short of the crown in the 2012 gospel competition, the 19-year-old singer/songwriter is still a winner. She has been signed by Music World Gospel, where she has just completed recording her first album, L.O.L.: Living Out Loud, which will be released on March 12, 2013.
host Kirk Franklin, which she performed on the show. “It’s a song that applies to my life
in all areas because it’s about being comfortable and confident in who I am and who God
made me to be,” she says. “I grew up listening to and admiring Kirk Franklin. To sing
that song in front of him was an honor. ”
Alexis describes her experience on Sunday Best as “amazing” and “surreal” from
beginning to end. “I remember getting in line and seeing 2,000 people ahead of me and
getting very discouraged.” However, Alexis made it to the Top 20 out of 15,000 who
auditioned for the show and then survived the competition to the final, where she was
first runner-up. “Even though I didn’t win, I thank God for the platform that it provided,
it really opened doors for me,” she says. “I’m so grateful for the relationships and
tutelage I received on the show. To be mentored and judged by people of such great
stature was very, very humbling.” She is also thankful for Joshua Rogers, the 18-yearold contestant who claimed the number one spot in the competition. “Josh is my brother
until the wheels fall off of everything,” she says. “It’s great to know that there are other
young people who love God as much as I do.”
Alexis has a musical style that is as unique and eclectic as her look, and that is by design.
She believes her music and her look may attract people to God who might not feel like
they belong in more traditional church settings. “My style is for everyone, but
specifically for those who are different, those who some would consider outcasts at
church or even by society,” she says. “The gospel music industry has to use different
methods to get different results. Adding music and musicians with a sense of uniqueness an get those souls who are unique. I’m just trying to do what the Bible says—go out and
compel men.”
Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Alexis is the oldest of five children. Her father is a
guitarist, singer, and preacher, and her uncle and grandfather are preachers as well.
Both music and God were at the center of her family life. She began singing in the choir
at her church when she was three years old. She sang with her mother until she found
confidence in her voice. When she was only eight years old, she formed a singing group
with her sisters, Alyssa, Jazmin, and baby sister Jada, who Alexis says has an amazing
voice. The group, The Spight Sisters, has performed around the Buffalo area and in
various parts of New York. Though Alexis is now pursuing a solo career, she says the
group still exists.
When she was 12, Alexis discovered a love and talent for writing music. She began
writing as a way to deal with a traumatic event and a difficult period in her life. Her
family lost their home in a 48-hour period due to financial difficulties, and the seven of
them had to move into an extended stay hotel, where they lived for three months. “I
suddenly knew what it was like to lose everything, but God blessed us through it all,” she
says, “It prompted my family to have an unspoken bond, and I believe it was preparation
for this journey.”
The Spights now live in Kansas City, where her father pastors Madden Temple Church
of God in Christ, and also pastors the Greater Faith and Deliverance Ministries in
Binghamton, New York. Alexis continues to hone her songwriting skills. Some of her
original compositions are featured on her upcoming album, L.O.L.
Alexis always knew that she wanted to be a professional singer. Her father, who helped
train her as a singer, taught her that if she wanted to do something, she should go after
it and learn all she could about it. She attended Buffalo Academy for Visual and
Performing Arts, the school where her mother and father attended as dance and music
majors respectively, and spent hours studying singers she admired, such as the Clark
Sisters and Kim Burrell, among others.”
At 16, she began to audition for televised
singing competition programs. She auditioned for American Idol and X Factor before
landing a spot on Sunday Best. “I guess God wanted my voice for him,” she says.
Alexis is looking ahead to a busy schedule and bright future in gospel music. She
recently came under the management of Greg “Uncle G” Lyons’ Uncle G Promotions and
Entertainment. She is also looking forward to the release of her next single and video,
“Steady,” a song she wrote that she describes as a prayer to keep her grounded and in
His will, when the world is pulling her in different directions. She says the song’s upbeat
tempo and “go go beat” will bless all kinds of people.
Alexis is adamant about the fact that her music is her ministry and that her number one
goal is to “win souls for the kingdom.” She also wants to make sure that the message in
her music ministry remains clear: “You can be as different and unique as God made you
and still love—and be loved by—God, so you can be bold and confident in your
uniqueness.”
