Three years ago, Justin Michael Williams sat next to his grandmother on her deathbed in her final days of battling cancer as she asked him a question that changed his life forever.

"If you were in my shoes and knew you were going to die in 2 months, what would you do?"

Williams immediately responded with, "I would drop everything and finally record an album."

Bringing his dream to life, Williams was thrust into the spotlight when his debut album, METAMORPHOSIS premiered at #18 on the iTunes Pop Charts in 2016, along with features by Spotify, Afropunk, Huffington Post, & Billboard — calling his music “sincere and intoxicating.”

Although Williams is still an independent artist, several critics are calling Justin the millennial George Michael, with a thundering falsetto that rivals mainstream acts like Justin Timberlake & Maxwell.

Williams grew up poor, surrounded by violence, addiction, & domestic abuse, yet overcame all odds to finally live his childhood dream of being an international recording artist — a feat which he credits to his meditation practice. Justin now donates his time to teach mediation seminars to marginalized communities as he travels the globe on tour.

[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]