Belinda West Womack Vocalist

Season 2 Episode 3 Belinda West Womack Vocalist

Welcome to Shaping Our Story with host Louise Krikorian—where inspiring leaders share their passion, purpose, and perseverance to help you thrive.

In this episode, we sit down with Belinda West Womack, a Tampa Bay jazz icon, who shares her extraordinary journey from Billboard-charting recording artist to Worship Chaplain. In this powerful episode of Shaping Our Story, she reflects on recording in Nashville with Kris Kristofferson’s Combine Music, her hit song “Seabiscuit in the Fifth,” and her lifelong passion for music, faith, and service.

Raised in Augusta, Georgia during the civil rights era, Belinda began singing at just four years old and performing professionally by eleven. Her career spans decades in the music industry, including work with RCA-affiliated Panorama Records, before transitioning into a life of ministry, community impact, and spiritual leadership in Tampa, Florida.

Now a devoted mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Belinda continues to inspire through jazz, gospel, and outreach—proving that purpose evolves, but passion endures.

🎤 In this episode:

• Billboard success & Nashville recording career 
• Singing through adversity in the civil rights era 
• Transition from music industry to ministry 
• Faith, purpose, and serving the Tampa community 
• Advice for pursuing passion with perseverance 

👉 Connect with Belinda Womack:
 Facebook: Belinda West Womack
 Instagram: @BelindaSinger1
 Clubhouse: Good Day Souls Womack

Stageworks Theatre, Tampa, Fl

https://stageworkstheatre.org/

#BelindaWomack #TampaBay #JazzSinger #BillboardArtist #FaithAndMusic #InspirationalStories #WomenInJazz #GospelMusic #TampaFlorida #ShapingOurStory #Perseverance #PurposeDrivenLife #AngelaDuckworth

👉Information

Louise Krikorian’s outline of questions comes from her years of researching the psychology of learning, motivating students, and researching Dr. Angela Duckworth’s work on Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Scribner, 2016). For more information on Dr. Angela Duckworth, you can visit https://angeladuckworth.com/.

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 Recorded in ShowTech Studios, Tampa, FL.

Creator: Louise Krikorian

Years Active: 2025

Season 1, 10 Episodes

Season 2, 3 Episodes

Total Episodes: 13

Length 24:11

Frequency: Updated biweekly

Rating: Clean

Hosted with Buzzsprout www.buzzsprout.com

Transcript

Louise Krikorian 0:06

Hi, I'm Louise Krikorian, and this is Shaping Our Story, where I talk with exemplary leaders about their passion, purpose, and perseverance to encourage you to thrive. Today our guest, Belinda Womack, is a Tampa Bay area jazz icon as a singer-songwriter who recorded with Chris Christofferson's Combine Music in Nashville, Tennessee. She also worked at Panorama Records, a subsidiary of RCA, where she recorded her hit song Sea Biscuit in the Fifth, which remained on the top billboard chart from 1980 to 1981. Belinda grew up in Augusta, Georgia, where she started singing with her siblings when she was four years old and started performing with her godfather Jerry Harris when she was 11. She made a transition from performing to full-time worship chaplain where she sees to the needs of her community. She is also a devoted mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend. Well, hello, Belinda Womack. Hi, Louise. Hi, finally we're here.

Belinda West Womack 1:26

I can't believe it.

Louise 1:28

I know. 

Belinda

Thank you for your patience. Oh, you're more than welcome. And I know we see each other during our rehearsals for the choir. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Louise 1:42

You had told me that you went to Savannah State University right after high school to become a science teacher. You worked at the University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia as a unit clerk. And that job inspired you to attend the Medical College of Georgia because you wanted to make more money as a transcriptionist for the hospital.

Belinda 2:04

Yes.

Louise 2:04

But yet when you were growing up, you did have some challenges because that was during the civil rights era. But you were singing in nightclubs at the age of 11. Right. And you you recorded commercials like the Burger King commercial and the course commercial singing for record labels.

Belinda 2:23

Yes.

Louise 2:24

And then you transitioned to being a worship chaplain, which is where you are nowadays.

Belinda 2:30

A lot of roads that took me there.

Louise 2:33

So you had moved from Augusta, Georgia to go to the Savannah State University.

Belinda 2:39

Yes.

Louise 2:40

Right. So with all of those different interests, what would you say is your greatest passion or interest?

Belinda 2:48

My greatest passion to start uh when I was singing, um, when I was small, was singing, because that was always my escape hatch out of reality from the the the way we grew up. You know, we had we were um raised by our grandparents, and um it was a wonderful time, but it was also a time of um living in great great poverty. We didn't know we lived in great great poverty until we got older. By the time we got to high school, that's when we started realizing things, but but my passion at that time was singing. But as I grew and as I sat under amazing people who um who helped me with my my walk as a Christian, I learned that singing was simply uh a catalyst by which God was leading me to where I needed to be. Uh and it became very evident, uh, especially uh after I moved to Tampa and started having children. It became very evident. Um my passion is really um letting people know that I am just one body trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody. And that is my faith. That's what I'm saying.

Louise 4:29

Yeah, it sounds like your passion is also your purpose.

Belinda 4:33

It is my purpose, yeah. My purpose is really um within that fold of being uh a con a Christian, but also being a person who can understand the passions of others. They may not all think like me, they may not all all worship like my like me, they may not all be Christian, but I understand that desire and need and and ability to be able to point to someone larger than yourself or bigger than yourself. And so um that could come in so many other varieties. I don't denigrate people because they say they're not Christian, um, but I try to learn what is it that fuels your life? And as I learn those things, I can um I can uh allow people to be who they are, but also love them enough with what God has given me, with the grace that He's given me. So yeah.

Louise 5:50

I think it's when I was working in um the Quaker schools. I was working in a Quaker school in Philadelphia, um getting my certification to be a teacher, and it was there that I learned with all the with the commute the Quaker community around me that every child has a light.

Belinda 6:16

I know. Every child does, everyone has a light. It depends on how you use that light. Um, what does that light, how does it resonate in your life? Is it a bright light that shines goodness and grace and mercy and forgiveness and love? Or is it a light that tries to snuff out the light of others? That sometimes people want to beam their light so bright that they can't see anything else but what they're doing and how they're living and um how they're um being a part of the world, what their contributions are. But God's grace and the light that he gives us helps us to see the value in everyone in those who those who are trying so hard to not snuff out the light of everybody else.

Louise 7:26

And I feel that when I'm with you during our rehearsals for our um for our choir.

Belinda 7:35

Yes. I I'm just I'm grateful that you're in that choir. Um your voice lends exactly what we need. It's so wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Louise 7:45

Thank you for inviting me. It's a great group. So I was thinking about in all the different areas that you've worked, because you've worked at a hospital, you've worked in the music industry, and you're continuing to sing in the throughout the Tampa Bay area. So you work with different artists, you work with different music venues, and working with such a vast um community. What would you say was your biggest professional failure and what did you learn from it?

Belinda 8:21

My biggest professional failure, I believe, is that I never really stuck with getting all the tools I needed in order to move forward in my life. It took me a long time to get to where I am today, simply because I didn't have those tools. And praise God, saw something in me that allowed me to get my CPEs uh so that I can become the chaplain that I am today. So I am ecstatic and very, very grateful for that.

Louise 9:02

Because you did have a journey getting there.

Belinda 9:05

Oh my lord. If this was a three or four hour uh event, we can talk about it. But honestly, man, oh man, oh man. Yeah. Yeah.

Louise 9:18

So would you say that you do what you do because it it comes easy, or it's just becomes it comes naturally to you?

Belinda 9:28

Neither of those. I do what I do because God has ordained me to do it. Um it sometimes is not so easy. It can be um it can be very daunting sometimes, and it's always filled um with looking beyond myself. Um and it's not natural because I had to make a choice. Most people want to make choices um that are easier to live through. You know, you don't want to choose the ones that's gonna cause you angst or bring sadness or or or bring um um you know other folks' stuff onto you. But praise God, um, I I made the choice to stick with where God was leading me. And once I did that, everything just changed. Everything became uh so much so much more meaningful. So I do the things that's more meaningful in God's kingdom building here on earth than I do the things that are easy or um or more fun. But I have fun while I'm doing it because I tell you the truth, um being with the folk with you and the folk in the Metro Men community ensemble, man, that's the highlight. That's my highlight when we get together, and I I hate it that right now um things are coming into summer, you know? And so with summer starting, it's like, oh man, I'm not gonna see them all the time. We get a little bit of an extension right now because we're gonna do the the um the library at at the Robert Saunders Library. We're gonna do um, I think it's Juneteenth, but it's we're gonna do it on the 13th of June. But um I get that little extension with you guys. And so, but then we start back up in the at the end of August.

Louise 11:51

Right.

Belinda 11:51

And and I'm with you uh again for another year. So right, yeah.

Louise 11:56

Yeah, that's great. So I was also wondering, it seems like there are probably a lot of things in your life that keep you inspired. I was wondering if one of them was your family.

Belinda 12:08

Oh my gosh, yes. My family, my children, my grandchildren, now my great-grandchildren. They all inspire me, but also Louise, the people around me, you know. I think about I think about my best friend Vicky, who's always pouring into me. I think about you, I think about um uh a young lady who just started with us a couple of years ago, Jordana. Um, I think about all of you, and then of course, Amy Green and Haley Sermons. Um, they are the chaplains I work with at Metro. I think about Janice, um Patileo. You all have poured into me. You inspire me, you treat me like I'm your sister, but not like somebody in a good way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in a good way. Yes, yes. And then I think about my sisters, you know, who I love and who inspire me too, because I know the struggles we've all gone through.

Louise 13:24

Right.

Belinda 13:24

And yet I can look at lives and say, wow, wow, but you're still moving, you're still journeying on. So I I get inspired by my family, my my daughter, my son, um, by my uh uh adopted children and and my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren, and all of those folk that surround me, but I'm also inspired by my community and by the people who see in me things I don't see in me, and the people who call me out for accountability. I love that. Yeah. So many people don't want accountability.

Louise 14:12

No, I do. I do. Please tell me if you see something that I seriously need some uh feedback on, because that's the only way that I'm gonna grow.

Belinda 14:22

That's right. You know, that's right. I don't I don't understand it when people say, you know, you can't judge me. Yes, you can. If you're a Christian and I'm a Christian and I'm out loud saying that I'm a follower of Christ and I'm not doing what he would do, yeah. You got to you you can please judge me and call me out and call me up and say, hey girl, we need to talk.

Louise 14:45

Right.

Belinda 14:45

Yeah.

Louise 14:46

So what are you hoping to do next?

Belinda 14:50

Well, um, of course, the work at Metro, I'm loving that. I'm hoping that God will continue to fuel me with um energy and stamina uh and um and learning all of this new computer stuff, because that's what we're doing now at Metro. Um yeah, oh yeah. And um that I can continue to do that. I I just want to continue to work for the Lord and keep doing what He wants me to do. Um, we have I have a concert coming up on the 27th at um Stageworks, and that's a jazz concert, but we're gonna do jazz, we're gonna do gospel, we're gonna do um our RB, we're gonna do pop. It's gonna be so amazing. And um the people that I'm working with, I can't hardly wait. So that's one of the things. And and then um I'm getting ready, we're preparing this young young man named Ton Tom, who uh has cancer, but he's a musician, he's a uh a novelist, he's uh a graphic artist, he's all of that, he's that he's that triple threat, right?

Louise 16:11

Yeah.

Belinda 16:12

Um he uh has we're going to Kenya to uh serve at a children's hospital there for cancer. Right. And then we're going to a women's hospital as well to serve there. And so we have a uh a fundraiser uh kickoff coming up. That's gonna be on the I believe the 26th, the day before the other concert, but that's in South St. Pete, and the Stageworks concert is in Tampa. So usually people don't go across the bridge for each other.

Louise 16:50

So I'll give it. Yeah, when it's important. That's true.

Belinda 16:55

That's true. Yeah.

Louise 16:56

So what is your advice for someone starting their own journey?

Belinda 17:02

Don't give up. Thank you. Don't give up. When I felt that my life was literally over. I did not give up. God said no. And He which allowed me to say, not today, Satan, not today. Don't give up because you never know what you're going to live into. God has people in place along this journey that will see in you what you can never see in you. And don't ever just um dispel a person's um a person's uh presence in your life because even if it doesn't work out to be a lifelong friend, it could be the friend of the moment. We live for um uh a day and a season and a lifetime. And so um I see I tend to live my life in seasons. Right now I'm in an amazing season of that senior citizenship where I'm still able to um have energy and have um stamina and want to keep on keeping on, and also to inspire others, you know, to inspire young people not to give up, don't let anybody come around and mess you up.

Louise 18:49

You know, everybody has struggles, yes, and we can get through this together, yes, we can so important, yeah.

Belinda 18:57

We are so much better together than we are separately. Um God did not make us to be silos, right?

Louise 19:09

Yeah, yeah. What do you do consistently every day to help you pursue your passion?

Belinda 19:15

Pray. Mm-hmm. Pray every day. Pray. Make sure that I'm around positive people. I will not I refuse to be around folk who are constantly eores. You know what I mean by that. Remember on um, what is it?

Louise 19:34

Um Winnie the Pooh.

Belinda 19:35

Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore. Oh, everything is such a downer, everything.

Louise 19:43

I lost my tail.

Belinda 19:45

I know, I lost my way. Oh, I'm not loved because I don't have this, I don't look like that. Uh no, no, no, no, no, no.

Louise 19:57

But we can have we can we can have bad days.

Belinda 20:00

Oh yeah.

Louise 20:01

Like you don't wanna, you don't wanna, you know, if you have a friend who's had a bad day or they're going through, like you said, like a difficult season, that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be your friend anymore. You can still support them.

Belinda 20:14

No, that's when you get closer to them, right? You know, um, I don't mean those people who are perpetu perpetually in a bad mood or in a bad season. There are people who will drain you.

Louise 20:28

Right.

Belinda 20:29

So you have to you have to be discerning. But when someone's lost somebody, or if they've lost a job or something's going not so great in their lives, that's when you come alongside them and and try your best to be that ear and that comfort to them.

Louise 20:49

Right. Yeah, right. Yeah, I agree. So, where can our listeners connect with you online?

Belinda 20:55

Okay, they can go on Facebook to Belinda West Womack and hit me up there. They can uh not on messages, not on Facebook messages, because I stopped looking at Facebook messages some years ago. Because honestly, if you don't have my phone number to send me a text, man, I cannot I cannot swim through 400, 500 text messages a day. It's just crazy. Um, also Instagram at belinda1Singer. Uh also a platform called um Clubhouse. I do a Saturday morning, yes, Saturday morning. Yes. 8 o'clock a.m to 8 30 a.m. Um prayer, scripture, and encouragement. Uh I encourage anybody to come and join us on Saturday mornings. And then um, let's see, that's on Clubhouse. And that's called Good Day Souls. Souls. Womac. Womac. Good Day Souls Womac.

Louise 22:06

Yes. Then you do have another Facebook page called Good Day Souls Womac.

Belinda 22:12

Yes, another Facebook page called Good Day Souls Womac. You can hit me up there too. Now that one I do check the um messages, Facebook messages, messengers there. Yeah, I do check that one. Because sometimes people are hitting me up because they need prayer for um for themselves or a family member or a loved one. And so I want to be open to that.

Louise 22:43

Well, if I can if I can judge, I would say you have a good soul for every day.

Belinda 22:51

Thank you. Thank you.

Louise 22:52

So I really appreciate your time and I look forward to the next time that we get together, which I think is tomorrow.

Belinda 22:59

Yes, tomorrow at rehearsal. Yes. Well, thank you so much, Louise. And you continue to be the light too, because you are really serving um everyone by having these kind of sit-downs and by uh letting the world know who people are. Who's the best people to tell who's the best person to tell you who they are? The person, right? 

Louise 23:22

Them. Right.

Belinda Right. 

Louise Yeah. 

Belinda So thank you. 

Louise Thank you so much. I'll talk to you soon. 

Belinda God bless. 

Louise God bless. Bye. Thank you for joining us at Shaping Our Story. And thanks to our guest, Belinda Womack, whose ability to consistently inspire audiences through music and faith is proof that she combines her passion with perseverance. If you enjoyed this week's episode, click on follow and leave a comment to inspire us or suggest a guest. And remember, if this made you think, please share the thought with a friend. See you next time.