>> BLESSING OFFOR: (Playing Piano) Good morning.
(singing) I know there's going to be some brighter days.
I swear that love will find you in your pain.
I feel it in me like the beating of life in my veins.
I know there's going to be some brighter days.
Oh, ashes fall from urns and trees.
Oh, never lived through times like these.
Oh, if you're trying hard to breathe in the dark, in the dark.
Well, I know there's going to be some brighter days.
I swear that love will find you in your pain.
I feel it in me like the beating of life in my veins.
I know there's going to be some brighter days.
Oh, if you're screams don't make a sound.
Oh, if your walls are crashing down.
Oh, if your heart just cries too loud, all the time.
All the time.
Oh, I know there's going to be some brighter days.
I swear that love will find you in your pain.
I feel it in me like the beating of life in my veins.
I know there's going to be some brighter days.
I swear that love will find you in your pain.
I feel it in me like the beating of life in my veins.
Oh, I know there's going to be some brighter days.
I swear that love will find you in your pain.
I feel it in me like the beating of life in my veins.
I know there's going to be some brighter days.
Some brighter days.
Yes, there will.
Yes, there's going to be, there's going to be, there's going to be some brighter days.
(Applause) >> MARY ELLEN COE: That was so beautiful.
It's just emotional to listen to you play.
So, everyone, Blessing has a recent hit new single and was just named top new artist at
the Dove Awards.
(applause) And
tell us also about the new album you have coming out.
>> BLESSING OFFOR: Yeah, there's this new album coming out Januaryá15th.
It's not bad, I'm to not going to lie.
It doesn't suck.
>> MARY ELLEN COE: I think after hearing you, people won't doubt that.
So, you were talking about wanting to share with everyone.
You lost your sight when you were how old?
>> BLESSING OFFOR: So, I was born in Nigeria.
My grandmother was the first person to say, hey, Blessing is only seeing out of one eye.
So, saved the vision in the other eye.
And you're going to say aw.
I got shot in the eye with a water gun and it detached the retina around the good eye
when I was ten or 11 or so.
>> MARY ELLEN COE: But you continued to play like this, which is just incredible.
So, I know you're doing some work with young artists who have challenges with lesser abilities
so can you share a little bit about what you're doing?
>> BLESSING OFFOR: It's funny because I grew up in Connecticut.
There was always a mentor or teacher, somebody who saw something that was like, oh, Blessing
is not just kidding around with music.
They always were kind.
Third grade, my teacher said, well, I was the kid drumming on tables.
Rather than saying, you're a disruption, she would say, do you want to go to the music
room and just sit at the piano?
I would be like, is that okay?
And she was like, yeah, I think you should go there.
I think you should go downstairs.
(laughter).
When I was done with elementary school.
My music teacher passed me to another music.
My entire life has been a story of people seeing potential and pouring into that.
Now, any chance I can, I'll talk, go to schools and speak to kids and to kids that are blind
or going through anything they might be going through because that's what it's about.
>> MARY ELLEN COE: Which, and I'm sure, you're just such an inspiration to them.
I always love watching your I was trying not to, I wasn't going to look you up in advance
because I really wanted to hear how powerful the performance was in the moment but I did
look up your YouTube video.
Just this outpouring of gratitude from people.
This whole theme of brighter days and that optimism.
Did you set out to inspire when you wrote this?
>> BLESSING OFFOR: So, I always think when you hear the word inspirational, there's this
thing about it that kind of hits a little cheesy.
It's like, you can, if you say to somebody, hey, there's going to be brighter days, it
almost sounds Polyanna-ish, like, ignore everything bad happening, it's going to be fine.
To inspire something is not to ignore reality but to acknowledge how hard something is and
to tell them that, listen, you have every right to feel what you're feeling.
It does suck.
But, it will be okay.
Even if it's not now, even if it's not tomorrow.
There's this in Nigeria, culturally, nobody ever says, how come this is happening?
We kind of expect life to be hard, you know what I mean?
There's not, we don't have a cultural or like tradition of thinking things should be okay.
So, when something is hard, we go, okay.
This is part of life.
It is hard.
And then, in that, accepting that things are going to be hard, you can wait more patiently.
>> MARY ELLEN COE: It's interesting.
Amanda Gorman spoke about that yesterday morning, the difference between that positivity and
hope and same themes.
Thank you so much.
It's really a great way to kick off this morning.
>> BLESSING OFFOR: Thank you guys for having me.
>> MARY ELLEN COE: And just such a privilege to have you here today.
>> BLESSING OFFOR: I can't wait to be back.
Call me any time.
I love this.
(laughter) (applause)