After a record turnout of voters, Matt Johnson, a singer and producer from Staunton, wasn’t the only Virginian anxiously awaiting the official tally in last week’s statewide election. He didn’t allow himself to feel joy, he says, until the final tally showed that Democrat Abigail Spanberger not only won, but won decisively with 57.32% of the vote, garnering 1,941,986 votes, according to the state Board of Elections.
But so far, Johnson, a veteran of NBC’s “The Voice” who recently dropped his debut solo album, is the first to write a song about her win.
As soon as the election was official, the words and music for his song, “The Color Blue,” came over him like an ocean wave, he recalls: “I immediately sat down at the piano and started writing.”
He remembers having goose bumps trying to wrap his head around the historic win and how important it “was — and is” for every Virginian. Johnson explains that he was trying to capture in song the feelings of the many who struggle to understand life and politics today. “We are living in times where it seems like the Earth is off its axis, and we are so desperate for leadership and truth and decency.”
As a native Virginian, as well as “a person of color, a gay person, and a self-employed artist from the commonwealth,” Johnson says he feels that Spanberger will defend not only her supporters, but everyone. “I feel seen for the first time in a long time. Congratulations, Madame Governor, I’m ready to sing at the inauguration!”
Johnson adds that his only regret about the election is that he can’t share Spanberger’s victory and his song with his own mother, who died from breast cancer two years ago.
“She is the reason I sing,” he says. “I have so many memories of riding in the car with her and singing as loudly as possible to Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson and all the bests of all time.”
Spanberger’s election as Virginia’s governor is the first time since his mother passed that he has allowed himself to feel any real hope, he says.
“I know my mother would be so elated to see Virginia elect [its] first female governor who is so compassionate and fiercely committed to keeping Virginia a place of peace and kindness,” he says. “I am so excited for you Madame Governor, and the ceiling in the sky you just broke through for all of us. Hate will never win.”
