Tony Cummings tracks the history of LEE VASI, maker of viral hit "Teach Me"

It's one of the strange quirks of the whole entertainment industry that those children who become "stars" as kids very, very seldom have any kind of success once they reach adulthood, even though their acting or singing ability may have in every way improved and developed. And tragically, there are many examples of child stars falling into depression and even suicide once the addictive power of Hollywood acclaim or smash hit records cease to envelop their young lives. There are only a few one-time child stars who've bucked this bleak stardom-to-obscurity trend. Lee Vasi is one such person. Under her birth name Halle Sullivan-Vargas, Lee once enthralled packed theatre audiences nightly when the nine year old sang in the Broadway production of The Lion King. Today, she is an acclaimed R&B gospel singer with a viral hit "Teach Me".

Lee's early life was a happy one and her Puerto Rican-Dominican and African American heritage filled her home in Fayetteville, North Carolina with music. and faith. Lee's mother Maureen has a memory of Lee's older brother Zach singing the Lord 's Prayer - at age two. Lee and Zach's precocious vocal talents were soon recognised. They both got to perform at Cape Fear Regional Theatre. Lee got her first big break at age eight when attending a casting call alongside her brother for the Broadway production of The Lion King.

What Maureen thought, in Vasi's words, was a trip to "come to Atlanta and do a little shopping" alongside the auditions, turned into a long day of sitting in the heat while 200-plus girls auditioned for the role of Young Nala. They never did go shopping - Vasi kept getting called back for more auditions. She landed the role and moved to New York City to star on the Broadway stage at nine years old.

What was supposed to be a six-month deal turned into a year and a half of Vasi living in New York City with her mother, performing on one of the grandest stages in all of entertainment. It was during that time that she began tinkering with songwriting, penning her first tune at 10 years old. She attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where she says she got a well-rounded experience in music.

In 2018 the hugely talented, and experienced, teenage singer was ready to make her bid for adult music success. She stepped into the audition room of American Idol and stood across from three music superstars: pop singer Katy Perry, country artist Luke Bryan and R&B icon Lionel Richie. Vasi told the judges she was "a huge fan of all" the judges and that "Zoom" (a 1977 tune from Richie's group The Commodores) was her favourite song to sing with her father Dwight. Richie broke out in the opening words to "Zoom" and Vasi joined in. Captured on camera for national television audiences, Vasi had a once-in-a-lifetime moment. She passed the audition and made it to Hollywood, but was cut before the final 24 round of that season of the show.

After the American Idol experience, Vasi moved to Atlanta where she says she didn't know anyone. She tried to find opportunities in the mainstream/secular music space but was struggling, especially when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Commented Vasi, "The pandemic really took a hard, hard effect on me and my mental health. I was really struggling to be balanced through all this, and understanding the differences and nuances between being a child in entertainment and a young adult in entertainment. I definitely got lost for a second."

So in 2021 she went back home to Fayetteville. She said, "At that point, so many things in my life were feeling so forced and I really started to doubt whether music was something God wanted me to be doing." Lee decided to take a complete break from music. She didn't even sing in the shower.
She said, "It was during that time when I got really strong in my faith journey and surrendered to the Lord." She planned to move back to Atlanta and the night before she departed she says she heard God speak to her. "I said to God, 'What do you need from me?' I heard him so loudly say to me, 'Music.' I can never say I've heard the voice of the Lord so clearly before that it really moved me."

Back in Atlanta, in September 2023 Lee released her first single in over three years. "My Bad" was almost a new kind of Christian song, a confessional with a bilingual (Spanglish) rendition. "The song is really about repentance and the conversational way that I talk to God," explained Vasi. "A large point of what I'm focused on is really being a reflection of how relational it is to be a Christian. Just be honest with Him, be vulnerable with Him. That's what this music is coming from. My bad, I wanna start over." The song gained immediate attention and a social media following aided by an a cappella performance on Kai Cenat and Speed's live-streamed talent show. The song, utilizing the R&B style of Vasi's early inspirations like Ne-Yo and Mariah Carey, focused on Vasi exploring her own humanity and how she wanted to be better and be what God needed her to be. The song quickly gained 350,000 streams on Spotify.

That was followed by "Teach Me" which went viral. It went on to receive more than 1 million views and over 150,000 likes on TikTok, more than 350,000 likes on Instagram and more than 375,000 streams on Spotify. It was also featured on the Apple Music-curated playlists Sunday Soul and Risers (the Christian music playlist) alongside songs from Christian and gospel music big hitters like Tauren Wells, Lecrae, Kirk Franklin and Chris Tomlin.

"'Teach Me' came from a really real place," Vasi said. "I was in a moment of really not understanding the way that he thinks. I think a lot of times in our relationships we can be really selfish. I just literally sat down and wrote, 'Lord, I know I'm not perfect and neither is this man you sent me.' I'm seeing God working through this song that was just about me and my relationship. I could not have even imagined the way this was going to impact people."

Her father Dwight said, "It was like a letter written so that no matter what age you are, if you're in a relationship and you're going through (hard times) with your spouse or significant other, that before you get to that discussion, that you talk to God, so that you can project what you need to project to keep that relationship. I think it's something that everyone who has someone that they love can benefit from."

In 2025 Lee released her debut album 'Love Me To Life' which, remarkably, was completed in just three weeks. Her intention for the album is to revolutionise Christian R&B for younger generations.
Signed to Capitol Christian Music Group/Tamla Records, Lee's current single "You Say" is now getting airplay. Not only is Lee Vasi enjoying success, but her one-time singer partner, her brother Zach, is now a film executive with A24 Studios, helping put out movies like 2020's Minari, which earned an Oscar and five additional nominations and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Having achieved success not once but twice in her music career, Lee Vasi is determined to do nothing out of selfish ambition. Rather, she is endeavouring to follow wherever God leads.