He always said, ‘I bust my rear to make sure that y’all have everything you need and most of what you want.’” She grew up idolizing gospel vocal group The Clark Sisters, as well as Aretha and Whitney. “We didn’t come from money, but my parents were great stewards of what they had,” she says of her upbringing. Ronson, known for his work with Amy Winehouse, Adele, and Lady Gaga, has always had an ear for truly authentic artists and Yebba is no different. He is also producing Yebba’s upcoming debut album, due later this year. And finally, Producer of the Year Grammy winner Mark Ronson features her on three songs on his latest album Late Night Feelings, including the transcendent single “Don’t Leave Me Lonely,” which they co-wrote. PJ Morton asked her to guest on his cover of “How Deep Is Your Love” - a recording that earned Yebba a 2018 Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance. Chance the Rapper invited her to sing back-up when he performed “Same Drugs” on Saturday Night Live in 2016, tweeting that she stole “the show with ridiculous vocals.” Sam Smith featured her on his song “No Peace.” A Tribe Called Quest featured her on their song “Melatonin.” Ed Sheeran invited her to open for him in 2017 and their duet on “Best Part of Me” is a highlight of his latest album. Over the past three years, Yebba’s volcanic talent has been recognized by many of the industry’s most discerning tastemakers. Whatever capacity God wants to put me in, I’m going to be there, as long as I can keep my heart.” “I just want to sing, whether anybody’s listening or not. “I will stop before I ever let anyone take that spirit away from me,” she says. “Music is the communication of my pain,” she says, adding that if she ever feels like she is faking it, she will quit, “give back all the money,” and open a dog rescue on a farm. Her music and her feelings cannot be untangled. She is also incapable of striking a false note, whether she’s singing or chatting. She is thoughtful, funny, and lightly profane. Though Yebba, a preacher’s daughter who grew up singing in church, has endured unspeakable tragedy, she is a delight to talk to. I didn’t give a shit about what I said, or what I sounded like, and that helped me to release a lot of my rage.” “That freed me up musically and the feelings just started coming out. “I started finding joy by going out to the jazz bar and watching the musicians and jamming with them,” she recalls. “I prayed a lot, but it didn’t feel like it helped,” she says. In the aftermath, Yebba, broke and grief-stricken, would wake up in her apartment in Harlem, go running, and try to tell herself something positive. “It shakes your fundamental belief in what safety is, because that was my mom,” says Smith, who changed her name to Yebba (one of her mother’s nicknames for her). #My mind yebba lyrics professionalThree weeks after Smith’s show for SoFar, one that would set her professional career in motion, the singer’s mother tragically took her own life in the family’s West Memphis home. The audience’s stunned shock at witnessing what was clearly a raw expression of pain can be seen in a video of the performance that appeared on YouTube in December 2016 and has now racked up over seven million views. Her staggeringly emotional performance of a song she had written called “My Mind” (about facing the reality that the one you love is hung up on someone else) finds her throwing her head back and wailing while also managing to deliver remarkably controlled vocal runs. In September 2016, a 21-year-old unknown singer named Abbey Smith stepped onstage for a show for SoFar Sounds in New York City, and, accompanied only by a guitarist, pretty much re-arranged the molecules in the room.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |