Fresh Off the Eras Tour, Kamilah Marshall to Give Keynote at Berklee Onsite 2025

Kamilah Marshall, who was recently seen and heard as one of Taylor Swift’s backing vocalists on her record-breaking Eras Tour, is this year’s keynote speaker at Berklee Onsite. Taking place May 30-31 on the Berklee College of Music campus in Boston, Berklee Onsite is an annual music conference presented by Berklee Online, which attracts music students and professionals from around the world. The event is open to the public and tickets are on sale now.

Marshall is an alum of Berklee Online’s Interdisciplinary Music Studies bachelor’s degree program, which she completed in 2024 while on tour as a member of Taylor’s Starlights, a foursome that performs backing vocals and choreography onstage. A Starlight since 2013, she has also supported Taylor on her Red, 1989, and Reputation world tours. While traveling from city to city from 2023–2024, Marshall balanced tour life with academic life in a way few could imagine.

“I didn’t enter into school just because, and to have a shiny degree at the end,” she told Senior Academic Advisor Mark Hopkins last year when she was a guest on his At Home with Mark series. “I did it because I want to be there and I want the education, so I’m really trying to stay as present as I can with that even though my life is so massive right now.”

CHECK OUT MORE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS FOR BERKLEE ONSITE 2025!

Marshall has also shared the stage with Justin Timberlake, Mary J. Blige, and Mick Jagger—and this is just the tip of the iceberg of Marshall’s illustrious music career. In an interview with Berklee Online’s Music is My Life podcast, she details her time on Broadway, which included roles in Rent, Disney’s The Lion King, and the original cast of Hairspray. In 2016, Marshall reprised her featured role as a Dynamite in Hairspray Live on NBC with Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande.

Marshall was also a backup singer and dancer for Bette Midler as one of her Staggering Harlettes, where she performed on her Kiss My Brass world tour from 2003–2005, and on her Showgirl Must Go On residency at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas from 2008–2010. 

During her time on Broadway and as a Harlette, Marshall met her friends Jordan Ballard and Shayna Steele, who also have storied music careers. Together they enrolled at Berklee Online and are walking at the 2025 Commencement ceremony at Berklee College of Music. The three are featured on the Sex and City 2 soundtrack where they sing a cover of “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered.”

In addition to her performance highlights, Marshall is an accomplished singer-songwriter, who has crafted songs both for herself and other artists. She wrote her latest song, “Canyon” in a Berklee Online songwriting class. 

In 2020, she was featured on the single “Both Sides” alongside Forest Blakk, which was released by Atlantic Records. Marshall also contributed to Vintage Trouble’s track, “Strike Your Light” in 2015. Her 2010 debut album, Gypsy Moonshine, is also available on streaming platforms.

As she prepares to give the keynote presentation at Berklee Onsite, and walk in Berklee’s graduation ceremony, Marshall doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. She’s now beginning a master’s degree with Berklee Online, continuing a journey she never expected would start in the middle of a pandemic—and certainly not while touring with one of the biggest pop stars in the world.