Niki Haris :: 20 Years with Madonna

After two decades as Madonna's back-up singer, you'd think Niki Haris might be tired of corsets.

"I'm trying on costumes as we speak," says Haris, reached by phone at her Los Angeles home. As we chat, she is playing dress-up with outfits for an upcoming gig; and though Haris has left the cone bras in another decade, it's impossible not to associate at least a few of her ensemble choices with her famous former boss.

"I have someone helping me take off a corset right now," laughs Haris. "I'm like, 'Get this shit off me so I can breathe again!'"

Shrugging off that familiar wardrobe piece is a poignant image when you consider how long Haris' notoriety has been linked to her career as Madonna's back-up vocalist, dancer, touring partner, and - as glimpsed in Madge's racy tour documentary Truth or Dare, anyway - close friend and confidante. Yes, she has loaned her pipes to any number of the pop queen's hits ("Like a Prayer" and "Vogue," for instance), but to fans Haris was never a faceless, interchangeable back-up singer. She was an integral and highly visible part of Team Madonna.

Today, she's ready to chat about her latest club single, "Bad, Bad Boy," a collaboration with DJ/producer duo (and Rhode Island born gay brothers), The Perry Twins. But she knows there will always be some obligatory ground to cover about her time spent with one of contemporary music's biggest gay icons, and she's okay with that. In fact, it's actually Haris who drops the M-word first.

"Now, which publication is this for again?" asks Haris, rifling through a mental Rolodex.

It's for Bay Windows, I remind her. A gay paper.

"Oh, yes!" she recalls. "You know, I always have to remind myself who I'm talking to. But I always know when I'm doing a jazz interview, because they never ask about Madonna."

She laughs. We'll ask, and she'll tell. To start: why the fallout? Diva drama?
"Maybe there was some drama, but I didn't buy into it. We were sisters for years," says Haris. "At the end of the day, really she [Madonna] is a gem and I'm so grateful."

"She threw my baby shower for me!" adds Haris, who gave birth to her daughter in 2003. It was shortly thereafter that Madonna launched her Re-Invention Tour, the first time she staged a show without Haris in over 15 years.

"People can talk all the crap they want, but we both knew by that last tour [Drowned World, 2001]," says Haris. "I had broken my legs, learned how to walk again, how to dance again, and did that tour with really bad injuries. It was okay, but painful. Now, I was 41 and pregnant. ... Of course, my ego was involved: 'Oh, she don't want me no more!' But at the end of the day, she gave me the greatest gift. Because of her, I got to spend every freaking day with my kid, doing the music I love to do. I'm close to 'the family' still. She knows I love her and she loves me."

Coincidentally, Madonna's last two tours have featured similarly named singer Nicki Richards as a backing vocalist. Haris doesn't mind.

"She can get Niki Two, if she wants to," she chuckles.

Since parting ways, Haris has been more free than ever to pursue her own work. This June she'll travel to Switzerland to record her next jazz album; in July, she'll return to her home state to perform with a Michigan symphony; and by the end of the year she plans to release her first Christmas album.

"No," says Haris, when asked if her work in the gospel and inspirational genres ever conflict with her support of the LGBT community. She practices primarily within the Unity Church. "I remember when my mom first came from her Baptist church in Michigan. Over our morning announcement they'd say, 'And we'll be having the gay and lesbian spring dance... for all the lonely lesbians, we'll be having a luncheon.'" says Haris.

"You know, I always have to remind myself who I'm talking to. But I always know when I'm doing a jazz interview, because they never ask about Madonna."

"I said, 'Yup, that's my church!' At first my mom said, 'I don't know, girl. The music is good but they don't say Jesus enough for me,'" she laughs. "Now she likes it, and she takes it all back to Michigan. She said to me, 'You know, I don't think my church is as progressive as yours."

"Yeah, maybe the blood and condemnation should have clued you in on that," adds Haris. "That's not in my life!"

Certainly not. After all, Haris' current work with The Perry Twins is destined for the dance floors of gay clubs everywhere. And though "Bad, Bad Boy," may sound like a straightforward stomper with a beat to make the crowds boogie, Haris has her own surprising idea of what a bad boy is really like.

"I went through a hardcore, solo kind of pregnancy," says Haris. "I was like, 'I'm fucking 41 years old, I'm about to have this baby, and I'm not getting married 'cause this guy is being a jerk. Whatever, I can have this baby on my own.'"

"Then I lose my job. 'Fuck, I'm not even working!'" she laughs, referring to the end of her time with Madonna. But as with her professional life, her personal one found new footing. Though the father of her child took a while to warm up, Haris says he transformed into the baddest kind of daddy around. (Hint: that's actually pretty good.)

"Typically, what's thought of as a bad guy is someone not fucking paying his child support and not being there," says Haris. "By the time my daughter turned four... he's here every day. We call each other family - not 'Baby Daddy' - we're not married, and we're both dating, but we're together every day. He's the coach for her track team, they do the father daughter dance, they play tennis... He ended up being what in the '70s we'd say is a 'bad brother!' He's bad in that sense."

It's through that meaning of the word that Haris hopes her fans will listen to "Bad, Bad Boy" - as an anthem of empowerment.

"Look in the White House! That's a badass family right there," says Haris, who performed at Democratic National Convention and Inauguration events for President Barack Obama. "People are aspiring to be something again, and that's what I mean when I say I want a bad, bad boy. Someone loving their kid; loving the relationship they're in; loving their friends and being supportive of their community."

"I don't mean in the sense of Chris Brown, knocking somebody up the head," she scoffs, referring to the young R&B star's alleged abuse toward pop princess Rihanna. "That shit is so pass?. It's so boring! Even the bad girl shit is tired. You know what's bad? When you handle your business. When you make your kids your priority. That's bad, right there."

And with the summer season nearly upon us, and Haris a popular performer on the annual Pride circuits, she hopes her gay fans will also find the good side of being bad.

"As far as the boys go, I'm going to Prides all the time and I'm tired of seeing people drugged up and fucked up," says Haris. "I want a bad boy out there. I want to see a fucking loving relationship so we can prove to the world we're not all party animals who don't take care of themselves. I want someone who is proud to say, 'I'm fucking gay, I'm taking care of business, and I'm a bad motherfucker!'"

"That's why I love The Perry Twins," she adds. They're a badass family too, she says, the kind of brothers who perform at gay clubs while their parents party in the crowd, supporting their sons whether it's in their sexuality or their spinning. "They're fucking cool," says Haris of the tight-knit unit.
And Haris is cool with the notion that for some of her fans, her own fame might always be preceded by that of a certain someone else. "If they want to associate me in the pop world, the gay world, with Madonna ... that's fine," says Haris. "But when they see me perform, when I do what I do, they know I'm not just here on the wings of Madonna. Though I'm grateful for the time [with her]. It's on the resume, as they say in jazz."

"At the end of the day... thank you for the bank account!" she yelps. And if she ever needs more, she knows just how to get it.

"I'll sell my bra one day," she says. Her own bra that is, and not just someone else's corset.

Girl, you're bad.

Niki Haris' new single with The Perry Twins, "Bad, Bad Boy," with remixes by DJ Escape, Solar City and more, is available now at online retailer Masterbeat.com or via perrytwinsmusic.com. For more info on Niki Haris, visit nikiharis.com.