Catching Up With...Sunshine Anderson

In the music business, being out of the spotlight can leave people speculating about whether an artist is truly talented or just a one-hit wonder.

For Grammy-nominated singer Sunshine Anderson, her hiatus from the world of R&B has only made her more sure that making music is what she was put on earth to do.

"Whoever said that I gave up?" she asked in a recent interview with BlackVoices.com. "Just 'cause you don't see me, doesn't mean I'm not working."

She added, "People like that one-hit wonder word...but that one record y'all heard has been paying me for the last 10 years."

Since releasing her sophomore set, 'Sunshine At Midnight,' in 2007, the North Carolina native married former Kansas City Chiefs football player Christopher Terry. Anderson gave birth to the couple's daughter, Alexia Skyy, shortly thereafter.

But things went sour with the relationship. Terry ended his football career and ran into some trouble with the law.

In a recent listening session in New York City, where she previewed her new album for journalists, Anderson gave her testimony through tears, detailing how the relationship led her into a severe state of depression.

"I think sometimes in a relationship you can sacrifice so much unknowingly," she explained. "You do the best for them and work toward the family goal, and you get to taking care of your man and forget who you are."

"You forget I have a fan base and then you think, 'If they knew some of the things I was going through, they wouldn't buy my records because they would say, 'She's a hypocrite. She's a liar. She be telling us to stand up on your own two feet and don't let him do you like that, and she's over here dealing with the same s**t,'" the North Carolina native said.

She continued, "I was fighting a lot of things, and sometimes you can love somebody so much that you give all your love away and cannot love yourself. Where they do that at? I thought, 'Why am I putting up with this? This is not how I was raised. What the hell am I doing this for?'"

So, Anderson started working as a hairdresser at Atlanta's popular Blendz Salon, where shop owner Paula Britt styles the fabulous tresses of some of Atlanta's big-name figures, including 'The Real Housewives of Atlanta' star Kandi Burruss.

"For me, it was ending my relationship and having a daughter and going into survival role. It was definitely that time in my life where I'd tell people, 'I have partied and had enough fun. Time to get to work,'" Anderson shared.

The 'Heard it All Before' crooner was formerly signed to Atlantic Records, but after teaming up with Mike City, she got a new record deal with Verve Records, and the duo had enough material stockpiled for a new album.

"I never made the conscious decision to be gone. I'd like to put an album out every year, it just didn't happen that way," she said. "[I spent a lot of time] meeting with Mike City and recording this song over here and hopping around, and I look up and I have all these songs. We put the songs together and came up with something beautiful."

Anderson credits 'For Colored Girls' star Macy Gray with educating her on how to take care of her business, advice that has sustained her during her off years.

"Macy Gray told me very early on to get my business straight, and I will forever be indebted to her for that. She didn't have to do that, but she saw something in me and she was determined not to see me fail, and now I'm being managed by the same team who manages Anthony Hamilton."

Anderson is busy promoting her latest opus, 'The Sun Shines Again,' and decided it was the right time to move from Atlanta back to North Carolina to be closer to family.

She told BlackVoices, "I'm moving back to Charlotte, so Anthony [Hamilton] and I will be living in the same city again. You know, Fantasia is there, and there are a lot of us artists that come out of and through North Carolina.

Things seems to be in a much sunnier place for the 36-year-old soul singer, especially with the support of Verve and her current group of supportive family and friends.

"I really feel like everybody is on one accord and trying to win and I don't think that I've ever felt this way in my career," she said. "It may not have happened to me the way I dreamed, but that doesn't mean that God still didn't give [me] a voice and a talent. You come to the realization that I might be the b**ch that slides off the radar every now again, but bet you're gonna see my name again.

Sunshine Anderson's 'The Sun Shines Again' hits stores nationwide on Nov.2.