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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