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Actress LaChanze, who portrayed Celie Harris in the 2005 Broadway musical adaptation The Color Purple, noted she wants royalties.
This stems from her contribution to the lyrics from I'm Here and its use in the musical produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, Deadline reports.
LaChanze opens up about royalties for I'm Here in The Color Purple
She posted her feelings on X. The post reads, “I am getting a lot of DM's and posts about why I've been left out of the press as the original Celie in the @TheColorPurple (musical).”
“I am thrilled for the movie's success! Happy for all involved,” she added. “However, I do want my royalty fee for the lyrics I added to I'm Here.”
I am getting a lot of DM’s and posts about why I’ve been left out of the press as the original Celie in the @TheColorPurple (musical). I am thrilled for the movie’s success! Happy for all involved. However, I do want my royalty fee for the lyrics I added to “I’M HERE”. 💜
— LaChanze (@laChanze) December 26, 2023
The song is credited to the composers Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray. She's not mentioned. However, in an interview with TIME, LaChanze details her part of the creative process.
“I said, ‘I wanna flirt with somebody, I know I got my sister. She can't be with me. But she's still my sister, and I know she loves me and my children,” the actress said. “I didn't put it together in the way they did, but my feelings, my emotions, and my thoughts about what I was experiencing as the actor embodying Celie they put in the song. So I like to say I helped write the song.”
The song is a climactic part of the musical.
“Yes, it's moving, it's emotional, it's heavy,” she noted. “But it's an anthem to Black womanhood, survival, resilience, and empowerment, so it was joyous for me in the end.”
Whether or not LaChanze will get royalties off the new movie The Color Purple is unknown. If so, hopefully, she'll post about it on X so we know the status.
