From the beginning, Jalessa Cade knew she was destined to become a gospel singer. With a strong and emotional voice that reflects growing up in the church intertwined with influences of Broadway, R&B, jazz, bluegrass, and other styles, Jalessa possesses a clear confidence to sing in a multitude of musical scenarios.
But this wasn’t always the case.
“Believe it or not, in the beginning I was shy,” Jalessa recalls from her childhood years singing. “ My mom, you know how parents are whenever they see something that they kid is thriving in, they always trying to put you in front of people so that I wasn’t shy long. So my mom always had me in front of people singing for people. Like, oh, hey, sing for Ms. Betty or sing for this people, and like she did it for everybody. It didn’t matter who it was. So around my mom, I always had to be on my A game.”
Audio: Finding Her Voice Through Song
Audio clip: Jalessa Cade reflects on her early singing years, sharing how growing up in the church and being encouraged to sing helped shape her confidence and vocal identity.
Transcript summary: Jalessa describes how family, church, and community support played a formative role in helping her find her voice and develop comfort singing in front of others.
While the foundation of singing came from the church, a variety of other influences contributed to Jalessa’s versatility. Union Hill Church, a small country church just outside of Dunn in Sampson County, is, “A Baptist Pentecostal Church, real country church. The only church that’s on the whole street. And it is surrounded by cotton fields, corn fields, and has an old time church smell. It’s in the middle of nowhere.” Attending Union Hill with her family, Jalessa gravitated towards choir music and hymns, with the latter becoming extremely meaningful to her for their depth, meaning, and ability to make a hymn their own through their style of singing.
While Union Hill also served as her church growing up, Jalessa was also exposed to several other churches throughout Sampson County and the surrounding area. By age 18 she was given the opportunity to explore her own churches. While several were impactful, it was Gospel Tabernacle Church in Dunn that exposed her to new styles of approaching gospel music: “At Gospel Tabernacle, they do a lot of CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) songs that gave me a bluegrass feel because they had a lot of guitar players that attended the ministry. And, you know, some gospel music can be very hard and clapping and making a lot of noise. But Gospel Tabernacle opened up a different mindset in regards to singing. It wasn’t very harsh. It was very light and airy. So it gave me another technique in regards to how I execute musically.”
But other musical influences beyond gospel also shaped her style of singing. “The main thing is definitely musical influences,which is not just gospel. It just so happened that’s my foundation. I thank God for it. But I’m a big bluegrass jazz girl. I like Ella Fitzgerald. I feel like that the heaviness of my voice is definitely a Mahalia Jackson type of feel. Also like, R&B, Jazz, Pop. I’m a big Celine Dion fan, because of how she carries herself and how she holds her notes and stuff like that. I have all types of genres inside, but, you know, gospel is the foundation.” In addition to singing, Broadway and opera have also been highly impactful in her stage presence, where shows like Hairspray, Lion King, and the Legally Blonde musical have shaped a more expressive style. However, as with her singing and ministering, stage presence is still shaped by God’s direction: “It’s definitely something that is God driven, just standing in the room and just doing what you’re called to do. It’s pretty much just letting the words and the music just take over. It’s pretty much just being a vessel.”
Gospel Performances by Jalessa Cade
Audio: “Amazing Grace”
Audio clip: Jalessa Cade performs the traditional hymn “Amazing Grace,” bringing her gospel foundation and expressive vocal style to this well-known song.
Transcript summary: Jalessa offers a personal interpretation of “Amazing Grace,” reflecting the hymn’s spiritual depth and its lasting significance within gospel tradition.
Audio: Gospel Medley
Audio clip: Jalessa Cade performs a gospel medley that showcases her vocal range and musical influences, drawing from traditional gospel styles.
Transcript summary: In this performance, Jalessa weaves together multiple gospel elements, demonstrating how tradition, technique, and personal expression come together in her singing.
More recently, Jalessa has started preaching the Gospel, brought on by her own relationship with God, and His mercy during a trying time in her life. “Part of my testimony is, in my younger years, I did do drugs. I did do alcohol. I did everything that I was big and bad enough to do. I have had some close calls with death. Definitely by the grace of God, He definitely had His hand on me the whole entire time. Now that I have been delivered from that, and honestly don’t have the evidence that I’ve ever did it, that’s truly what I call God’s grace and mercy.” After her own experiences and deliverance from her own personal struggles, a chance opportunity through a friend on social media led her to preaching for the first time, at a small country church in Elizabethtown. “I was scared out of my mind,” Jalessa admits. “I had everything laid out, and I was reading over it in the car and I could just feel my anxiety, like, get the best of me.
So I literally had to say a prayer and literally had to have a mindset of less of me and more of Him.” Now with a couple years of preaching, Jalessa now ministers, serves as co-worship leader, and is part of leadership staff at Warriors for Christ Outreach Ministries in Raeford, continuing to bring her own experiences and background in spreading the Gospel.
Audio: On Ministering Through Song and Preaching
Audio clip: Jalessa Cade reflects on her calling to minister, sharing how faith, lived experience, and music guide her approach to singing, preaching, and serving others.
Transcript summary: Jalessa discusses how ministering requires intention, humility, and openness—approaching both music and preaching as a way to let the message move through her.
Through her singing and ministering, Jalessa has maintained an emphasis on intention, and being your true self through music. Just as her exposure to different styles of gospel music have helped shape her approach to singing and ministering, there is an ability to make music personal, and have it serve as an opportunity to show who you are, and your feelings at the time when you do sing. As with her early love of hymns, Jalessa states: “I’m really a big stickler on making a song your own. I know that one person sings it, but whenever you sing, you should make it like you wrote it. It is definitely important to be authentic, to be real, and don’t be so pressured to be anybody else but yourself.”
Jalessa Cade can be found on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
