Ledisi "Enjoying" Headlining Her Own Tour After Being "Afraid"

Eclectic singer Ledisi is about wrap up her first headlining tour—a tour she says almost didn’t happen.

"I've been waiting to do something like this for years...but, honestly, I was afraid of headlining," said the singer to Billboard.com. "To headline, there's a pressure that comes with it. Expectations get higher and higher as the night goes on. You're worried if people are going to hear their favorite songs or not. I'm a people pleaser, which is horrible. I really want my fans to be pleased. But I'm actually enjoying this. There's a lot of work that comes with the show, before you go out and sing a song. But it's rewarding to do your own show, too, so I'm all the way in it. I'm glad I'm doing it."

Although an 11-year music veteran, Ledisi still remains a relatively unknown artist, and she insisted that the inability to peg her to a mainstream genre also caused doubt about touring.  

"I've learned that people have their particular version of Ledisi that they love," she said. "I've grown in so many different directions, but I didn't do it on purpose. I just do music naturally, whatever is happening in that moment. I don't worry about genres or whatever. So I've learned people have their version of me that they like and they'd like me to stay there.

In a continual expansion of her musical wings, Ledisi is preparing to begin her next body of work. She has “so many ideas” about the sound of the album, and looks forward to the possibility of working with such greats as A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip. Ledisi added that she may even consider putting together a gospel album one day.

Ledisi will wrap up her tour on November 22 in Columbus, OH. Her song, “Pieces of Me,” debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, the highest for her yet.