Regina Belle on Her New Gospel Album, 'Higher,' and Still Singing Her Secular Songs

  Legendary R&B singer Regina Belle is back with her ninth album and second gospel album, Higher (out June 5). During a recent visit to ESSENCE, the Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer revealed that although she’s mainly singing gospel nowadays, she still manages to sing her secular hits like “Baby Come to Me” and “If I Could.” “The Bible says go into the hedges and the highways, and so I’m permitted by permission of our Father, to go back to some of the places that I’ve been previously,” says Belle, who is now a pastor’s wife (her husband, ex-NBA player John S. Battle III is senior pastor at First Lady of New Shield of Faith Ministries in Atlanta). Higher features cameos by Pastor Shirley Ceaser and Lowell Pye.