Get ready to be overwhelmed by Cynthia Erivo.

With a voice that brings tears to your eyes and a stage presence that The New York Times described as “incandescent,” the British actress/singer is just an Academy Award away from revered EGOT (Emmy/Grammy/Oscar/Tony winner) status. She earned the E, G and T for her work in the 2015 Broadway revival of “The Color Purple,” winning the acting Tony for portraying the lead character Celie, then a Grammy for the album that was made from the production, and finally a Daytime Emmy after the cast sang on “The Today Show” on NBC.

Erivo, who this weekend will perform love songs from Broadway musicals at a La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls fundraiser and Hawaii Theatre, is herself amazed at her success.

“It definitely still blows me away, actually,” said Erivo, who has a close friend living in Hawaii and visits frequently. “A lot of (the awards) were dreams of mine that I had, and it’s just awesome to be within it and see it all happen all at the same time. I’m just enjoying it, and excited, and making sure I keep up with my work, so that people can keep enjoying it, and I can keep enjoying it, and experiencing it all as it happens. It’s kind of wonderful.”

That Oscar might be on the horizon. Erivo has just finished shooting “Harriet,” a biopic about the abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman. A nomination would not be surprising, given her success on film so far – stealing scenes in her first movie, “Widows” with Viola Davis and Michelle Rodriguez, and her second, “Bad Times at the El Royale,” where her a capella versions of “Unchained Melody,” “This Old Heart of Mine” and “Can’t Hurry Love” provided an enchanting, if somewhat spine-tingling counterpart to the gore in the murder mystery.

It’s not just her track record of accomplishment that ensures an intriguing performance from Erivo. She puts everything she has into her craft.

“It was tough and exhilarating and meaningful, very meaningful,” she said of her work on “Harriet.” “There are so many emotional experiences that you have to go through in order to make sure that you’re doing her justice. It was definitely the hardest I’ve worked in a long time. And that is saying a lot, because I like to work hard. But it was an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget. I think it definitely changed my life and changed me.

“Getting to know her — I knew her already, but getting to experience her, getting to know her like that — it was really special.”

The role has not been without controversy. Erivo may well be the best British import to stage and screen since Julie Andrews, but some have said that the role of Harriet Tubman should have gone to an African American.

Erivo, who is of Nigerian descent and was born and raised in South London, said she has always felt a duty to be well-versed in African-American history and culture.

“Because I’m a black girl, I can’t help but to make it my business to learn about the woman in history who are of color like myself, who have changed the shape of history,” she said.

“Harriet wasn’t new to me. Celie wasn’t new to me. We don’t have the information about women of color out there in the U.K, but we do have information about the women of color from America. Those are our inspirations, the people we look to.

“It extends right into music. The music that we hear, when it comes to R&B and soul – we have loads of artists (of African heritage) in the U.K., but very few of them make it onto the radio. Very few of them are seen in the way American artists are seen in the U.K. … That’s why I know almost the whole catalogue of Aretha Franklin. That’s who I was listening to.”

MUSIC HAS always been a big part of Erivo’s life. She got an inkling of her singing ability as a child, when she sang “Silent Night” at a party and saw how happy it made everyone.

She did not get formal music training until she was a teenager, studying classical singing at first, and enhancing that with her own passion and diligence.

“I was a nosy child who wanted to make sure I could suck up everything I could when it came to music,” Erivo said. “It was a combination of classical training and hunger for music.”

She describes her voice using the operatic term coloratura soprano, but the emotion and vulnerability she puts into her singing seem to surpass any categorization or limitation.

Her role as Celie in “The Color Purple,” who for much of the story is downtrodden and abused, took so much out of her that for awhile she stopped singing “I’m Here,” the musical’s signature song, in concert.

“I believe that if you’re going to sing a song, you have to find the truth in that song, and tell that truth,” she said. “I think I’m lucky enough to be connected to my emotions, connected to my feelings, so that I can connect that with the music and the song and the story I’m telling.”

Some of that understanding comes from her initial career choice, music psychology. She had studied it for a year in college when an advisor urged her to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, one of London’s most prestigious schools. She was admitted, and primarily studied acting, but the school allowed her to continue singing.

Erivo still thinks her original studies help inform her performance today, albeit in an unusual way.

“What helped me understand what music psychology was was the way in which people would react to me singing something, or listening to a piece of music,” she said. “I would see that, and the information that I garnered from that was used to help me. It was kind of backwards.”

Despite her crowd-pleasing, award-winning success, Erivo continues to work on all of her talents. She experiments with her silky, four-octave-plus range voice, finding new insights into tonal quality and color.

“I know I have a specific kind of voice, but I’ve always been curious about how far I can take it and what I can do with it,” she said. “I’m always playing around with the sound I can make, so my learning never stops. Every year I find something new that I can do with my voice.

“You know, babies, when they find a new word, it’s like they chew it and find out how many ways they can use that sound, that word. I feel the same about my voice.”