Vanessa Williams

Vanessa Williams is musical theatre royalty. She’s worked with Stephen Sondheim on Broadway and is currently commanding the London stage as the fearsome fashion editor Miranda Priestly in the musical The Devil Wears Prada. She’s also topped the American pop charts, starred in Hollywood movies with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and played key roles in prize winning TV series including Ugly Betty. And before all that she was crowned Miss America 1984 - the first Black American to take the title – although she was later forced to relinquish it in controversial circumstances. Her choices include music from her homeland by Samuel Barber, Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, as well as works by Bach and Delius. Presenter Michael Berkeley Producer Katy Hickman

You can listen to Vanessa Williams online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Vanessa Williams is an episode from Private Passions by BBC.

This episode is 51:13 long.

This episode was published on Jan 11, 2026.

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