James Ingram and Michael McDonald Yah Mo Be There

When I was growing up I used to love this song!! It made me feel so good inside. Doing my research for this song I know exactly why and I finally know what Yah Mo Be There means!! A lot of us including myself thought they was saying imma gonna be there.

“Yah Mo B There” is an R&B song by American singers James Ingram and Michael McDonald. It was written by Ingram, McDonald, Rod Temperton, and producer Quincy Jones. The song originally appeared on Ingram’s 1983 album It’s Your Night, released on Jones’s Qwest Records label. It was released as a single in late 1983, peaking at No. 19 on the U.S. charts in 1984, and No. 44 on the UK charts also in 1984, (the remixed version by Jellybean Benitez hit No. 12 in the Spring of 1985 in the UK), and has subsequently appeared on several of Ingram and McDonald’s greatest hits albums as well as various 1980s compilation albums.

The performance earned the duo a 1985 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. It was one of a series of very successful duets involving Ingram. It also received a nomination for Best R&B Song, losing to “I Feel for You” (Prince).

This song is a shoutout to GOD! The actually spelling of the song title is Yah Mo B There. Yah is a shortened version of Yahweh, which means God in Hebrew. So the title literally means “God will be there” and is interpreted as “God be with you.