“Special Delivery” – Bridget Kelly

As I was in the midst of my daily hour and a half commute home from work, I was pulled away from my daydream as “Special Delivery” began to play on Power 105. It is not often you hear a female R&B record on the radio these days, ESPECIALLY if it doesn’t feature a rapper. (You should hear the passion I sing “Titanium” with simply because I am starved for a power ballad on the radio.)

Anyway, thought I would share!

Bridget debuted the song at the Essence Music Festival this summer.

Bridget recently stopped by Sway in the Morning to chat about Luke James, love, and the “Special Delivery” single. She seems like a down-to-earth, cool girl!

For the full interview click here.

Check out Bridget’s website here.

Watch her AMAZING cover of “Thinking About Forever” (originally Bridget’s single written by Frank Ocean) here.

Where Are They Now: Quierra “Qui Qui” Martin

As I was listening to my iPod on the train heading home from homecoming last weekend, “Single for the Rest of My Life” began to play. If you are familiar with the song then you know it is by ISYSS or “Intelligent Sexy Young Soul Sisters.” ISYSS, a five member group came on the tail end of the girl group epidemic releasing their debut album The Way We Do in 2002. Though they never attained the level of fame they desired, the album did go on to have two hit singles. I was only 12 at the time when my cousin put me onto the album, but I LOVED it. Whenever “Single for the Rest of My Life” or “Day and Night” comes up on my iPod shuffle I wonder, what happened to them?

I decided to do a little digging, and I was able to find an update on the lead singer of the group, Quierra “Qui Qui” Martin.  She is still trying to make it in the music game and just release her mixtape Bmore2LA on October 29. You can find Bmore2LA on DatPiff

Find a great interview with Qui Qui where she discusses her budding solo career and the demise of ISYSS here. Watch the video that started it all, “Day and Night,” below.

For more information about Qui Qui click here.

Follow Qui Qui on Twitter here

Update:

J Music: “I Miss You” (Beyoncé Cover) – Janay

I started recording this cover on a trial version of a program thinking I had plenty of time to finish the cover.  Needless to say, I ended up not having enough time to re-record as I would have liked, but I still wanted to share my imperfection with the world!

One of my favorite songs off 4.

*As I have somewhat of an unspoken law to never cover a Beyoncé song, I am counting this as a Frank Ocean cover.

J Music: Melanie Fiona – “Wrong Side of a Love Song” (Studio Session)

She better sing the song! There is something that has always held Melanie Fiona back from superstardom, but it is not lack of talent.  Though I don’t love the song, I connect with the message; she makes me like it that much more with her emotion and control.
**Anyone else distracting momentarily by some of those guitar chords???

J Music: Performance and Meet & Greet with Pentatonix at B.B. Kings

So this post is suppper delayed, but last week I took a little hiatus from some of my social media activities. I went to see the Pentatonix perform at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City on Tuesday, September 12.  Pentatonix is a 5-member a cappella group that is most known for winnning season 3 of NBC’s The Sing-Off, and for having the ability to transcend the customary boundaries of a cappella with unique and futuristic arrangements.

http://hal9209.com/blog/2012/09/pentatonix-concert/

The show was nothing short of phenomenal.

I know Pentatonix is impressive, but nothing prepares you to see them performing live! 

If you are familiar with The Sing-Off then you can recall the judges always referred to Avi and Kevin as the “meat and potatoes.” I have always been so obsessed with Scott (he is always featured on my blog), but my breakout stars for the night were definitely Kevin and Avi. It’s not very often that the focus is on the lower parts, but the bass and the beatboxing made the show!

The opening act for the night was Julia Easterlin — who deserves, and will get her own blog post. Great start to the night, and the crowd was pumped up for Pentatonix to hit the stage.

They did not disappoint, performing all of their big songs from The Sing-Off and all of my favorite covers from YouTube.

http://hal9209.com/blog/2012/09/pentatonix-concert/

The best part of the night was the end when I got to meet them and, of course, I absolutely shower them with praise!  I have been around a number of celebs/musicians in my life, but I was so in awe of their performance that I was actually nervous (embarrassing). They were so sweet!

For the full Pentatonix biography see below.

Buy the Pentatonix EP PTX, Vol. 1 here.

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