Martha Reeves has spent more than six decades defining the sound of American popular music. As the powerhouse voice of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, she delivered timeless Motown classics—“Dancing in the Street,” “(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave,” “Jimmy Mack,” “Nowhere to Run”—that still fill dance floors and playlists worldwide. A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in March 2024, and a living embodiment of Motown’s golden era, Reeves is now writing a remarkable new chapter. At 85, she has released Searching, her first new studio album in 22 years, led by the single “To Know You Is to Love You.” The Eric Kupper remix of that track has already climbed the UK’s Music Week Commercial Pop and Dance charts, debuting at No. 31 and rising to No. 16—proof that a legendary voice can still move a new generation.
In a recent conversation with AMFM Magazine’s Paul Salfen, Reeves and her manager/co-producer Chris Roe opened up about the album, the unexpected path that brought it to life, and the deep roots that have sustained her for a lifetime.
A Hail Mary at Age Three
When Salfen asked about the “Hail Mary moment” that shaped her career—the leap of faith that changed everything—Reeves did not point to Motown, a hit single, or a big stage. She went all the way back to age three.
“I was 3 years old with my two older brothers, Thomas and Benny, and we were in our grandfather’s church, Metropolitan AME, right here in Detroit,” she recalled. The family had moved from Alabama when she was just 11 months old. At an amateur contest in the church, the young siblings performed and won candy as the prize. “I knew I had it made because my brothers let me have control of the candy,” she said with a laugh. “If they didn’t treat me nice or be kind to me, I wouldn’t let them have any of those chocolate-covered cherries. I got a bit of authority about my talent, and I knew that God had blessed me with a voice, and that I could hold my own.”
That early sense of purpose never left her. Her mother told her she would be a singer and insisted she “never sing a song unless you know it in your heart, and you feel it.” An aunt who pierced her ears suggested the name Martha LaValle. Faith remained the constant. “Pray to God, and ask Him where you should go and what you should do, and He’ll lead and guide you,” Reeves said. She quoted the scripture that has guided her: “Ask and it shall be given, knock and the doors will be open, and seek and you shall find.”
Those early lessons carried her through Motown’s glory years, through decades of performing, and into this latest chapter. “I’ve got an album full of songs that I felt with my heart and understanding of life and how to continue this walk that God has allowed me to have,” she told Salfen. “So I’m thrilled. I’m excited.”
Motown Meets the Big Easy
The album Searching itself grew from a partnership between Reeves and Chris Roe. After beginning to manage her, Roe felt strongly that new music was essential. “She’d gone a long time without fresh new music, and I think it’s important to keep visible,” he explained. His original idea was a jazz album, inspired by the rising interest among younger listeners.
The concept crystallized when Roe served as a juror at the USA Film Festival in Dallas in April 2023 and met trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, whose father, Ellis Marsalis, was the subject of a documentary screening. Roe approached him about working with Reeves. Three weeks later he flew to New Orleans. Marsalis later came to Detroit to meet Reeves. They tested the chemistry with concerts in Baltimore in October 2023 and were in the studio three weeks after that.
The result, Roe said, became “Motown meets the Big Easy”—the soul of Motown fused with New Orleans jazz, blues, gospel, and R&B. Reeves was fully involved. “I was included in everything, all of the processes of this album,” she said. “I’ve always dreamed of being there [in the studio with everyone], but never had the opportunity. But this was really a treat.”
The lead single, “To Know You Is to Love You” (originally associated with Stevie Wonder and Syreeta), carries special resonance. Reeves first met a young Stevie Wonder at Motown when he was only eight. “He taught me a whole lot about music and sound and rhythms,” she remembered. The new version, and especially Eric Kupper’s soulful house remix, has introduced her voice to a fresh audience of club-goers in their teens, twenties, and thirties. “Hashtag 16 at 85 for Martha,” Roe noted with clear pride. “I think it’s absolutely beautiful.”
Roe also directed the accompanying music video, shot as a live performance that serves as an homage to Reeves’ career and the musicians who played on the album. For Reeves, walking into the session felt like a dream realized. “I’m having some dreams come true, and it’s magic,” she said. “Everything’s working beautifully… and I’m at the right age now to appreciate it and to receive it the way that it is being… I’m being blessed by this wonderful production.”
The Voice Endures
Throughout the conversation, Reeves returned again and again to gratitude, faith, and the simple joy of still being able to sing. She rises every morning and sings. She still studies the greats she grew up admiring—Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, and others—while acknowledging how far recording technology and musicianship have come. And she remains clear-eyed about the source of her longevity: “I can’t think of anything but the grace of God, and how, through all of my situations and circumstances, He’s brought me through.”
When Salfen observed that the story of Searching would encourage people who feel it might be “too late,” Reeves offered a simple correction: “All the time is the right time to make great art.”
At 85, with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, a catalog of classics that helped define Motown, and a new album already finding its way onto dance charts, Martha Reeves is not looking backward. She is still searching—and still finding.
Searching is available now on digital platforms, with vinyl and CD editions to follow. Live performances are in the works for the coming year. For a new generation discovering her voice for the first time, and for longtime fans who never stopped dancing in the street, the wait is over.
