Unlike party songs, love songs and breakup songs, Mother’s Day anthems don’t exactly come along every day. But Boyz II Men delivered an enduring ode to the maternal tribe when they dropped “A Song for Mama” — their last Top-10 single in a string of ’90s hits — in 1997. The tender tune, which finds the Grammy-winning boy band serenading Mom as “the queen of my heart,” makes them a natural to take the Barclays Center stage on Saturday as part of the Mother’s Day Good Music Festival, an R&B extravaganza also featuring Charlie Wilson, Joe and Kem.
“It just kind of organically became this song that people played a lot on Mother’s Day,” says Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman, 45. “It’s always nice to hear how much that song has touched so many people, how many people have dedicated it to their mothers that may have passed away or to someone who is a mother-type figure. It’s really been a blessing for us.”
Written and produced by Babyface — who also collaborated with the Boyz on the No. 1 smashes “End of the Road” and “I’ll Make Love to You” — the track served as the theme song for the 1997 ensemble film “Soul Food,” centering on a black family matriarch. “When Babyface was writing it, he had us in mind the whole time,” says Stockman of his trio, which was still a quartet at the time. “We instantly knew that it was gonna be a big song. It had all the elements.”
After getting a private preview screening of “Soul Food” for inspiration, they recorded the song — which plays over the opening credits of the movie — and the session went as smooth as the group’s harmonies. “We did it in Face’s studio in LA,” says Stockman. “It was really one of those things where we heard it, we understood it completely and we got in there and knocked it out in a day.”
When they first played “A Song for Mama” for their own moms, the Boyz knew they had tapped into a mother lode of emotion. “They absolutely loved it. My mother cried,” Stockman says. “Even now, some of them will come up to the stage [at a concert] just so we can sing it right to them. It is an ode to them and how much they’ve played the most important part in our lives in making us the men that we are.”
One particular performance of “A Song for Mama” stands out among all others. “We were on the ‘Oprah’ show, and our mothers were there, and we sang it for them,” says Stockman of their 1997 appearance on the talk-show juggernaut. “Oprah was crying, and our mothers were crying. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. To have done that song on such a major show with one of the biggest icons in television history, that was definitely a cool moment.”
While Stockman won’t get to see his mama — or his wife, Sharonda (the couple have three children) — this Mother’s Day weekend, he says they will “be taken care of” to mark their special day.
Meanwhile, the group is more than ready to harmonize on what Winfrey called “the Mama song.”
“There are certain concerts,” says Stockman, “where, if we don’t sing that song, I think there’d be a riot.”
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