Submitted by Lenny Stoute
It was a gray, rainy, foggy morning, I needed an emotional upgrade and Neena Rose turned out to be just the person for that. From the sec I picked up the phone, the Hammertown based 17-year-old rising r’n’b presence is all rapid fire delivery punctuated by giggles and riding a wave of being really here, really now and really a happening thing.
Last March, Neena Rose was the first young Canadian female artist to represent at the California Copyright Conference in Los Angeles. She appeared at the “Young Guns — Innovative and Thriving in the New World Music Order” and pronounced it an exciting learning experience.
“I was the youngest one and there was so much to be learned. For me the most important takeaway was that how you make money in the music business has changed and it isn’t going back to old models. Also the power of social media in music is just going to increase. I learnt that you have to evolve to survive.”
Neena Rose got there on the strength of two singles, “Games” and “Run in“Circles,” with the former streaming in the 151,000 range at Spotify, but the back story references recording her first original song “Rock N Roll Lullaby” at the age of 12, performing for Oprah Winfrey at Copp’s Coliseum in front of an audience of 14,000 and was selected by CHCH TV to record the new theme song for Tiny Talent Time.
In the now she’s on an upward trajectory propelled by a voice perfectly suited to the nouveau r’n’b’, songwriting chops beyond her years and a work ethic to match. For a young artist whose path has been smooth sailing so far, she shows a keen awareness of life’s rougher ways. Ask about influences and she goes like so.
“I really like the way Ariana Grande doesn’t sugar coat what she’s writing about. That’s the way I feel about what I am doing. I won’t tone it down. Most often a song comes to me as a concept and I start thinking about it and writing down lines. I’ll go to the piano, I’ll record like thirty tracks then I’ll go over them to hear what works best. I’m thinking I’m like a female Drake, making r’n’b that matters.”
It’s this demonstrated maturity paired with her signature genre-bending, new-old-school r’n’b style that engages and inspires immediate positive emotional responses.
“Music and art gives me a vehicle to express life as experienced by lots of teenagers, and to relate to it from a different place,”...
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