What happened when Dolly Parton was asked to sing with Blessing Offor: 'Another level'

Dove-Award winning and Grammy-nominated Christian singer Blessing Offor released his newest single "Somebody's Child" on Friday. The song is a duet with music legend, Dolly Parton, which is something Offor said took the song to another level.

"The song was always meant to be timeless," Offor told The Tennessean. "I want a song that just stands outside of time and genre, you know what I mean? And Dolly Parton was the exclamation mark to that song. Like when her voice comes in, you just go, 'Oh my God, this is another level.' It's like, you didn't know what you needed until you got it."

Written by Offor, Josh Ronen, and Joy Williams, the song wasn't originally intended to be a duet.

"I think it was Josh who said he thought Dolly Parton would love the song and he asked if he could send to her," Offor said. "I was like 'Yeah!' Next thing we knew we got a letter from her saying she'd love to be part of it. We asked if she would put a vocal on it. Two weeks later, we have a vocal. I was like 'Oh my God, me and Dolly are singing a song together."

Next, the team wanted to make a video and decided to throw a "Hail Mary pass" and ask if Parton would join in.

"Can I tell you, nobody from the label had Blessing Offer doing a music video with Dolly Parton on their bingo card," Offor said, laughing. "When we actually had a video day, I kept waking up going 'I'm going to meet Dolly Parton.' And then I was like 'I'm going to meet Dolly Parton in 10 days.' To 'I'm meeting Dolly Parton today!"

Offor, who is originally from Nigeria, but grew up in America, said even his Nigerian family members know who Parton is. He said his uncle knew Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie — and Dolly Parton.

"When I played him the demo of this, he like about cried," Offor said. "This is a Nigerian man who came to America to play professional soccer. He was a jock and he knew 'Jolene' and 'Working Nine to Five.' If that doesn't tell you how wide her reach is, I don't know what else would."

Parton said of the collaboration in a statement, "I know it’s too easy to say it was a blessing singing with Blessing, but it was. I love the song ‘Somebody’s Child’ and I am very proud to be a part of it.”

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Offor has been touring much of 2024 with fellow Christian artist Lauren Daigle and will be performing in Franklin, TN at the Academy Park Performing Arts Center on May 14 and will also be part of Nashville's Fourth of July Celebration.

Melonee Hurt covers music and music business at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK — Tennessee. Reach Melonee at mhurt@tennessean.com, on X @HurtMelonee or Instagram at @MelHurtWrites.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dolly Parton joins Blessing Offor for 'Somebody's Child' single video