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From Underground to the top upfront Music charts Kendra Erika


Kendra Erika is a #1 Billboard Recording Artist/Songwriter from Boca Raton, Florida. She has achieved 3 Top Ten songs on the Billboard Chart in less than two years. Kendra’s Deep House/ Pop recording style developed from the eclectic vibes of her surrounding musical culture and community. Focused on being truthful to her core artistry and authentic to whom she is, Kendra brings a dynamic cinematic experience to everything she produces. Trained in classical and jazz, she draws inspiration from artists like Lana Del Rey, Solange, Ellie Goulding, London Grammar, and Laura Branigan. Her most popular club music single to date is “Self Control,” which claimed the top spot on the Billboard Dance Chart in January of 2019. Her single, “Under My Skin,” climbed to the # 6 position in 2017 and “Oasis,” peaked at # 9 on Billboard’s Dance Club chart in 2016. All three Billboard charting songs were produced by Grammy-award winning producer Damon Sharpe and Eric Sanicola.” Kendra’s chartbusting spin “Self Control,” is a remake and celebration of 80’s pop diva Laura Branigan’s original club favorite. 

Kendra recently also released her new single “Lay It On Me” which combines elements of EDM, pop and dub step. Produced by Manny Mijares (Kelly Rowland, Dua Lipa, Pitbull) and Ron Reeser, “Lay It On Me,” is a marked detour from the styling of Kendra’s previous club music singles. However she makes it clear that says she’s not stepping away from the dance floor. Kendra Erika has performed in major dance clubs nationally and internationally and has opened for award-winning international pop-artist, Jason Derulo, during an exclusive private benefit concert in in Miami, Florida. When writing her jazz and ballads, Kendra would take a more autobiographical approach in her writing, but with dance, she learned her job was to create music that appealed to everybody on the dance floor. When creating beats, she puts herself in the shoes of what fans would want to hear while they’re partying and letting go. The difficult part, she says, is giving the dance floor what it needs while also keeping her integrity as an artist. Over the past few years, Erika has established herself as a Jessica Rabbit-esque pop diva straddling the worlds of retro jazz standards and modern dance music, first appearing on Billboard’s dance charts with 2016 single “Oasis.” Though she’s embracing modern sounds, she isn’t abandoning that throwback, Amy Winehouse-inspired style. “Oasis” was inspired by a trip to California, where Erika was recording music. When she left the studio, she got to explore “the desert-like environment. I literally imagined an oasis, (and wrote) a song that people can get lost in, to let go of all stress and really let go.” Pop singer Kendra Erika’s latest single release pays homage to her musical hero, Laura Branigan, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of Branigan’s 80’s dance hit, “Self Control.” Produced by Grammy Award winning producer Damon Sharpe, Kendra Erika’s version adds a futuristic new age nuance to the dance classic. “Laura’s original was a trailblazer in its time,” says Kendra Erika. “It was important to Damon and me that our version stand out from the deep house, dance music of today. We wanted a record that belonged to the next decade and beyond.”Along with the single is a complete remix package of the song, including exclusive productions by Ralphi Rosario, Moto Blanco, and Dirty Werk. Branigan’s “Self Control” famously encouraged listeners to slip into the alluring world of nightlife. As a pop artist who got her start in clubs, its message is significant to Kendra Erika. “I connect with the song’s vibe. I also believe today’s clubbers can take a lesson from the song.” Laura Branigan’s “Self Control” released in 1984. It peaked at no. 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and climbed to no. 2 on the dance chart. The song has become one of the defining songs of the 1980s and has received a number of recorded remakes over the years. Notable covers include Ricky Martin’s in 1993 and a hit dance remake by Branigan herself in 2004, the same year of her death from an undiagnosed cerebral aneurysm. “Its crazy to think that Laura Branigan is gone,” reflects Kendra Erika. “However, her spirit lives on as twenty-five years later, her music still lights up dance floors all over the world.” The lifelong Boca Raton resident has been writing and performing since she was a kid. She looks the part of a dance chart diva, with long auburn hair, black thigh-high boots and a soulful stare. But behind that magazine-worthy facade is an opera-trained singer and recent Lynn University graduate who once feared she’d never be able to find her voice. “I was born tone-deaf,” Erika explains. Obviously, that’s a deal-breaker for most musical careers. But most people aren’t as determined as she is. “I”m a Leo, so that comes with the territory,” she says, laughing. She caught the performance bug as a little girl, and began doing community theater when she was about eight: “When I was a little girl I always liked inspiring people.” One of her training grounds, Little Palm Theatre, has another notable alumni, Boca Raton’s Grande. 

Erika says she remembers her “but never really knew her,” and politely declines comparison with the singer. “I have my own path,” she says. “I like to be an original.”Erika found she “had the confidence to perform” but needed help on the skills. So she sought help from Fort Lauderdale vocal coach Gisbert Heuer, who “really laid out for me what I had to do. He gave me a foundation for technique and taught me the intricacies of what I can do with my voice. I was a sponge.” After fine-tuning her voice and getting a solid base in opera and classical, Erika branched out into jazz, finding a love for Frank Sinatra, who she calls “the original cinematic singer. It’s like a Scorsese movie,” she says. “He was a rule breaker. He created music you want to sit back, have a cocktail to and be inspired by.” Her own songwriting which began with “bubblegum sort of pop” eventually transitioned into her current loungey vibe. Although her genre is technically EDM and deep house, a sub-genre with jazz and soul-inflected roots, she’s channeled that through the seductive sheen of the Bond Girl. “They’re very tasteful. They embrace their sexuality in a very classy way,” Erika explains, adding that she also draws style points from the sultriness of Rita Hayworth and the class of Audrey Hepburn, as well as the “very cinematic” music of current singers Lana Del Rey and Ellie Goulding. “They’re very timeless, iconic. I want to be that, instead of a quick fad.” A native of South Florida, Kendra’s Deep House/Pop recording style developed from the eclectic vibes of her surrounding musical culture and community. Focused on being truthful to her core artistry and authentic to who she is as a person, Kendra brings a dynamic cinematic experience to everything she produces. Kendra Erika is full of wisdom regarding what she has learned in the music industry thus far in her career. From taking her roots in the Southern Florida music scene and jazz lessons to becoming a master in making successful dance music.

You can found more about her on February 2019 Issue at here

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