Atlanta native Joaquina Kalukango named AP Breakthrough Entertainer of the Year

Joaquina Kalukango poses for a portrait on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022, in New York. Kalukango has been named one of The Associated Press' Breakthrough Entertainers of 2022. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Winning a Tony Award as best lead actress in a musical cemented Joaquina Kalukango’s place in the Broadway firmament. But it also, surprisingly, cemented Kalukango’s belief that she could actually do musicals.

“It was truly a powerful moment, especially for me, because I had such a fear of doing musicals for a very long time. I was an actor at heart,” she says. “I think it was a great moment in my trajectory of owning a new side of myself that I wasn’t that comfortable with sharing for a while.”

Kalukango’s show-stopping performance in “Paradise Square” and especially her heart-felt searing second act song “Let It Burn” routinely drew audiences to their feet, a triumph of the 2021-2022 season.