I was just so honored to play the role of Cinderella and to just be the first African-American princess, that's just historic for me, that's such a mark in my life and my career and then the bonus of just working with my favorite person in the whole world, Whitney [Houston], like her voice just did something to my spirit.

I knew I had to make a sacrifice to do what I've always wanted to do.

It just feels like I'm on the right path musically and I'm in the right mindset to continue out my mission in music because I'm not putting myself in a box.

I'm just going with the flow. I'm in the process, I'm on the path. I'm really working towards all of my goals and music is definitely on the way.

All I could think about was, 'I just wanna blow him away. I wanna make him proud, because I really wanna sign with Timbaland and spend the rest of my career making music with Tim.'

That's the beautiful part about acting - you get to play somebody other than yourself. So, I'm open to people who can't sing, people who can, people that sing a little bit, or people that sing a lot.

I think creativity becomes really beautiful and magical when you allow it to do what it's needing you to do.