Closing Keynote Speaker: Blessing Offor
Sunday, November 24, 2024
Blessing Offor
Grammy Nominated Musician & Reality TV Star (The Voice, season seven)
When: Sunday, November 24th from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET
Location: Terrace Ballroom, Pennsylvania Convention Center
Biography
Blessing Offor speaks to relatable experiences of struggle, triumph, life, and love from a distinctive perspective as a Nigerian-born, Connecticut-raised, and Nashville-based singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Exhibiting virtuosic piano ability, honest songwriting, and a showstopping voice, his musical fluency and creative foresight are unmatched only made more inspiring by his journey.
With five older siblings, Blessing left Nigeria at just six years old to live with his uncle in Connecticut. Glaucoma left him blind in one eye, and his parents felt he might find better medical care in the United States. He lost sight in the other eye at ten years old due to a water gun accident. Nevertheless, Blessing dove into music. He devoured classics by Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Commodores, and Barry White. He was even allowed to listen to Eminem under one condition – “If I said any of the words, my uncle would take it away,” he laughs.
From a young age, Blessing had the natural ability to learn music by ear, developing incredible skill while quickly building his musical index.
“Seeing things differently—no pun intended—helps me elucidate concepts in ways people aren’t used to,” he notes. “Everybody has a different filter and a place they come from. My place was, ‘Oh man, my vision is terrible.’ It was frustrating early on, but it trained my ear.” Blessing doesn’t believe his blindness is a hindrance; rather, a gift that affords him a heightened sense of attunement to the world around him. Losing his sight gave him a greater appreciation for sound and its multitude of textures and timbres. He began hearing every note of a chord, making his creating experience even richer.
“As I got older, I started to realize that everybody’s dealing with something crippling. We’re all somehow falling short. If you could picture anybody you deal with being in an emotional or mental full body cast, you’d have a lot more grace for people,” he asserts. “I actually feel bad for people who have yet to discover what they’re struggling with because no one cuts them a break, and that’s really sad.”
In his young adult years Offor played in bars before competing on season seven of The Voice in 2014, until he was eliminated in the third round.
Offor regularly performs at the Kennedy Center to help spread awareness about artists with disabilities.
In 2022 his single "Brighter Days reached 17 on the Billboard Top 20. In 2023, Offor released a solo single "My Tribe", which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Christian AirPlay for seven weeks. "My Tribe" pays tribute to his sister, Mercy, who died December 29, 2022, and to his home country, Nigeria.
Later that year, he received a Grammy nomination for the Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for his song "Believe" which reached number 23, on Christian Top 40. Offor also received a nomination for the Best Contemporary Christian Music Album with his album, My Tribe.