Thursday, March 28, 2024

KeKe Wayatt Explains the Connection of R&B, Gospel & Country Music (EUR Exclusive)

keke wyatt (screenshot)

*If you’re having a conversation with KeKe Wyatt, chances are high you’ll spend part of it laughing. Her personality is fun, her since of humor’s witty, and both are especially apparent when she’s discussing her southern roots. “Honey, I’m a country girl,” she says.

When the discussion turns to Wyatt’s musical preferences all the laughter stops. “From the time I can remember wanting to sing, I always wanted to sing and write country music,” admits the platinum-selling singer.

On Sunday July 3 she’ll be singing gospel, paying tribute to legendary group The Clark Sisters during the 22nd Annual Essence Festival in New Orleans. “I love all genres of music; I love R&B, I love Hip-Hop, I love Rock, Pop, World music, you name it,” Wyatt says. “And I love Gospel!

“I love it all,” Wyatt continues, “but country music is rooted in me.”

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Suffice to say she’s done quite well with R&B. Current album ‘Rated Love’ debuted #11 on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums Chart off the strength of singles “Sexy Song” and “Love Me”. This continued the momentum from her acclaimed 2014 EP, ‘Ke’Ke’. Its moody single “Lie Under You”, which received millions of plays by R&B enthusiasts across various media platforms, is described by Wyatt as a country song.

“I felt right at home with how I wrote it and how I sang it,” she says. “And I wasn’t concerned if people thought I sounded too county because I am country!”

READ RELATED STORY: Keke Wyatt’s Emotional Cover of Prince’s ‘Diamonds and Pearls’ (Watch)

Born in Louisiana to vocalist parents, Wyatt found her R&B voice as a teen.  She was 17-years-old when “My First Love”, a remake that first paired her with Avant, became a major hit. Lightning struck twice when they teamed for her second single “Nothing In This World”, which propelled her debut album ‘Soul Sista’ up both Billboard’s Top 200 and R&B Albums Charts.

Wyatt says although she grew up singing gospel, eventually becoming an R&B Diva, country music was all around her. And there are those who’d swear R&B and Country are miles apart. Wyatt will quickly, and wittily, shorten that gap. She easily explains how country and R&B music, and even gospel music, are very much alike.

“Honey,” she begins, “they have that down-home-blues-type feel. You can take an R&B song and play it at church. Somebody could sing to it but change the words up to sing it to God. And what’s funny is country is just as close, only people don’t realize it.”

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Keke Wyatt’s Post-Baby Body Is Snatched

Wyatt explains further. “It’s all variations of the blues. And if you listen to country music, they’re singing the blues! They’re singing with a guitar and we’re singing it with a bass line.”

Heavily influenced by The Clark Sisters, Wyatt also paid attention to Lionel Richie’s work with Kenny Rogers, as well as the success of country star Darius Rucker. Despite what she’s seen from them her love of country music still comes from within. She says, “They do inspire me, but I don’t have any kind of thought about them when I’m writing.  I’m eventually going to start a new direction of music that’s country-soul.”

mr joe walker
Mr. Joe Walker

Known as “The Word Heavyweight Champion”, Mr. Joe Walker has been a biographer, entertainment journalist, and columnist for 18 years; his acclaimed, award-winning work has been published thousands of times regionally, nationally, internationally, and online for numerous publications including SoulTrain.com, Kalamazoo Gazette, WrestlingInc.com and Notion Magazine. Walker’s currently writing for EURweb, Concrete Magazine’s Concrete615.com, RealMenReport.com, and Hood Illustrated Magazine. Like him on Facebook, follow on Twitter @mrjoewalker, and visit his official website.

 

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