As the voice behind Sesame Street’s first Black female Muppet, Gabrielle, four-time Emmy winner Megan Piphus is once again using her talents to inspire the next generation. The Nashville-based ventriloquist and musician has partnered with nonprofit, Saving Our Daughters, co-founded by actress Keke Palmer, to create Cinderella Sweep, a new children’s album that blends music with mentorship.
Released last month, Cinderella Sweep includes the lead single “ABC’s of Me,” featuring YouTube sensation Gracie’s Corner. With contributions from Grammy winners Sir the Baptist and Jay Ivy, and a 50-member “Cinderella Choir” made up of young girls, the project aims to help girls of color navigate self-worth, bullying, and other social challenges through the power of song and story.
"I've worked with Saving Our Daughters (SOD) since 2021, I believe, as a mentor," says Piphus. "SOD finds mentors that mentor the girls in the arts and they call them Celebrity Godparents, and the girls are called Cinderellas. It's all the fairy tale theme, which is really sweet. As I started working on my next children's album, I was writing a song called "Stop Me Now." And in writing the song, I realized the audience for and the message of the song would be directed toward young girls. And I thought, 'What if I could actually get young girls on this album through Saving Our Daughters? And so I reached out to their founder and proposed the idea of us doing the album together. The girls recorded on five of the songs for the album, and they all got recording experience in a studio, which was amazing. Many of them had never sung before, let alone been in a studio. So it was wonderful to give them the empowerment to try something new."
The songs cover topics such as self-esteem and bullying. "Since I was very young, my purpose in the arts and in performing has been in sharing a message," says Piphus. "And so since I was 10 years old, at my very first performance at my elementary school, my first performance was about God's love. So mind you, my teacher at this performance had just asked me to share what I learned in front of the class, basically share how I had done ventriloquism, but I decided to turn it into a whole other thing. I wrote a two-page script about God's love and salvation. And so I was using my puppet to talk about something really intense for kindergartners and first-graders, but they loved it. So I learned very early on that you can take very intense topics and transform them into something fun and imaginative when there's a story involved. And so we've done that same thing with this album."
"One of the songs on the album that talks about self-esteem is called "Magic in My Skin"," continues Piphus. And the lyrics are, 'I've got magic in my skin, a radiant glow from within, I'm a ten.' It's talking about loving the color of your skin and how it radiates from the rays from the sun, and it changes colors. And the song is talking about looking at yourself in the mirror and telling yourself that you're a ten. It tackles very intense topics of self-esteem and overcoming prejudice. But the girls love the song and then sang it at the top of their lungs in the studio, which was so beautiful. The majority of the girls that were on the album are girls of color. And so it was really important for me to share a song with them that encourages them to be confident in who they are."
"I also hope that they take away that they can dream their wildest dreams without limitations. We lined them up one by one and asked them what they want to be when they grow up. And you'd think that after doing a full album recording in a studio with platinum records on the wall and Grammy Award-winning producers, they'd be like, 'I want to be an artist now.' But the girls were inspired to do anything. One by one they said, 'I want to be a judge. I want to be a chief financial officer. I want to be a baker. So they were encouraged and inspired to do anything without limitation."
Piphus graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Master of Science in Finance but has been entertaining and performing since she was 10 years old. "I started puppetry and ventriloquism when I was 10 years old as an art form, but I had been playing with puppets since a very young age," says Piphus. "I was just inspired by the ability to bring something to life with your own voice. Growing up playing with Barbie dolls and all kinds of toys with imaginative play, but when I learned puppetry, it allowed me to share that playtime with other people and bring people of all ages into a world of imagination."
That world of imagination lead her to Sesame Street. "We just wrapped season 56 of Sesame Street, says Piphus. "It's been amazing. And I'm so grateful to be able to work on a show with such an incredible legacy. Within my first couple of days on set, I was able to see exactly why the show has been around for so long - their pursuit of excellence in everything that they do. Every line, every word is set with intention to educate and empower kids to be smarter and stronger." MeganPiphus.com