Tag:

Music

‘Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story’

by Briana Boateng May 12, 2022

written by Briana Boateng

Mahalia Jackson, the prominent gospel singer, has revolutionized society’s relationship with gospel music.

May 12, 2022 0 comments

On The Scene: Mary J. Blige Brings Strength Of A Woman Festival To Atlanta

by Chantell Hayden May 12, 2022

written by Chantell Hayden

Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit Day 2 State Farm Arena Concert

Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit – Day 3 – Gospel Brunch

Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit – Day 1 – Comedy Night

Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit – Day 1 – Gen Z Concert

Strength Of A Woman Festival & Summit Day 2 Strength Of A Woman Summit

This past weekend, Mary J Blige, with the help of Live Nation Urban and Pepsi, kicked off her inaugural Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit in Atlanta.

The 3-day fest was jam-packed with a comedy show, 2 concerts with an all-women lineup, and a Mother’s Day Gospel Brunch.

The Friday night comedy show included comedians Ms. Pat, Erica Duchess, and Taneshia “Just Nesh” Rice. Following the comedy show was a concert at The Tabernacle in Downtown Atlanta with performances by Kiana Ledè, Emotional Oranges, Rubi Rose, Sevyn Streeter, Inayah, MK XYZ and Omerettá the Great. It was the ideal ladies night.

Pink and purple seemed to be the official colors of the weekend, as the fluorescent colors lit up every room we walked in. There were interactive Strength of a Woman photobooths on display all around the venue for fans to enjoy, along with refreshments courtesy of Pepsi and Strength of a Woman merch booths scattered around. And, of course, a hot wing booth selling some of the best assorted chicken wings we’ve ever ate because when in Rome, right?

Fans watched on as their favorite artists put on a hell of a show. ATL natives and rappers Rubi Rose and Omerettá commanded the stage while performing their most popular songs. Rubi even added a twerk competition mid song as she rapped the sexy yet playful lyrics to her single “Hit Yo Dance” featuring Yella Beezy and NLE Choppa.

The energy of the night became calmer once the R&B songstresses took the stage. Sevyn Streeter recently finished her intimate 5-city tour promoting her latest project Drunken Wordz, Sober Thoughtz but she made sure to bring some of that tour energy to the stage and performed songs like “Taboo”, “Before I Do” and “Nasty Girl”.

Kiana Lede closed out the night and did not disappoint. The singer-songwriter floated around the stage in a sultry, black skirt and bra set while serenading the audience as she sung her songs “Chocolate” and “Attention” from her debut album KIKI.

The festivities picked back up on Saturday with the Strength of a Woman Summit hosted by actress Taraji P. Henson. Guests enjoyed educational workshops and panels geared toward cultivating a community to empower and uplift women.

Trailblazing black women in various industries ranging from music and entertainment to hair care and culinary arts shared their individual stories about overcoming adversities, love, friendship and success. Mary J. Blige, Angie Martinez, Supa Cent, Tasha K. Smith, LaLa Anthony, Coco Jones, Naturi Naughton, Kandi Burruss and more were able to speak about their experiences with attendees.

Black-owned food trucks, a Strength of a Woman curated NFT gallery and music led by DJ Traci Steele are just a few of the fun things provided for everyone to enjoy and the entire experience was live-streamed globally on Amazon’s Twitch.

Carrying on into the night, a sold-out concert at State Farm Arena headlined by Mary J Blige was nothing short of magical. R&B group Xscape, Chaka Khan, City Girls, Yung Baby Tate and Queen Naija performed and kept the crowd hype but it was the grand finale that truly brought the night together.

Mary J Blige made the stage her own in an orange and magenta jumpsuit, along with her signature blond tresses and knee-high boots. The R&B legend gave the audience a lengthy but well deserved 2-hour set running through her extensive list of hits. “My Life,” “Real Love” and “Mary Jane (All Night Long)” are among the many songs that she performed.

She even brought longtime friend, and co-star on STARZ Power Book II, Method Man along to perform their 1995 hit “All I Need” while fans and special guests like LaLa Anthony, Kelly Rowland and Missy Elliot sang along. But the surprises didn’t stop there.

As the concert began to wind down, Usher, Summer Walker and Ella Mai joined Mary on stage to perform a few of their songs for the crowd. It was a perfect finale and an even more perfect night as Mary reminded us why she has and will always be the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul.

May 12, 2022 0 comments

Music

Exclusive: Dax Talks Recently Released Single ‘Dear Alcohol’ [Video]

by Rebecca Eugene May 10, 2022

written by Rebecca Eugene

Dax recently released his single called Dear Alcohol which is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube Music, and more.

May 10, 2022 0 comments

Koncerts Music The Latest

Exclusive: Eloise Alterman Talks New EP “Sad Bird”

by Sydney Hargrove May 6, 2022

written by Sydney Hargrove

Earlier this month, we witnessed singer Eloise Alterman perform songs from her all new EP Sad Bird, out today on all streaming platforms! We were completely moved by the conversations and the stories that Eloise tells throughout her immersive music style, and it was wonderful to hear her talk about these songs in addition to performing them. We sat down with Eloise to talk all about the new EP, check out the conversation below!

The Knockturnal: Eloise, how are you?

Eloise Alterman: I’m good. How are you?

The Knockturnal: So to start us out, you wrote most of this music during the pandemic. What was that process like?

Eloise Alterman: It was definitely very weird for me in the beginning because I’m so good in a room with other people and when you can really connect. Most of the time for writes, too, you sit down with people and you kind of talk about where you are in life before diving into an idea. And with writing for this EP, you sit on Zoom and it was immediately like, “ok what’s everyone’s ideas?” We’re all just stuck in our apartments just trying to make sense of it all. But the great thing about it was that I was able to write with people I never would’ve written with – oversees, people in London, one guy in Sweden. It gave such an opportunity to work with so many other creatives. And I really enjoyed that.

The Knockturnal: I love that. You have such insightful things to say about all of your music. You were talking about 4AM and you said it was that period in time where it doesn’t feel like morning or night. Can you walk me through some of the creative processes behind your lyrics?

Eloise Alterman: Yea, so with “4 in the Morning,” I had written after I had felt that about that weird time of day. Trying to get over someone I think is one of the most difficult things to do, as we know. And for me, I need to take a second and step back and check in with myself usually to understand exactly how I’m feeling about something before writing about it. And I think with lyrics, they have to be so concise. If you think about it, you can have a million feelings but try to fit it into one sentence or two minutes or something. But I usually start with a notebook and I just will free-write for a long time. It’ll just be random thoughts, random titles, and they won’t even have meaning behind them sometimes. But then once I go into a room with another co-writer, I’ll speak them out loud and they’ll say, “what does that mean to you?” and it’ll just come to me.

The Knockturnal: I really love that. Now tell me a little bit about your music video. What can viewers expect to see in it and what are you trying to channel?

Eloise Alterman: I mean, the song is pretty self-explanatory. I was in love with someone who was in love with someone else still. And we were together and it was really difficult on me. I had never experienced jealousy like that and also changing how I viewed myself. It was kind of this unraveling that happened out of nowhere while loving him and while watching him still be in love with someone else. I wanted the music video to really, really encompass that, instead of tell a story of the girl and the guy and the fight and all that kind of stuff that’s so surface level, when what was really happening was I was falling apart on the inside but trying to keep it together on the outside. And so, I wanted to create a really beautiful dreamlike world that started to go darker and darker as the music video went on and show how easy it is to pretty much just unravel in front of someone.

The Knockturnal: That’s incredible. What was the filming process like?

Eloise Alterman: It was a crazy day. It was really fun, though. It was my first music video, but… it was on the beach in Malibu. An early set time. We also were doing the photo shoot for the EP, so in between takes we were doing a photoshoot, as well. So it was quite stressful. But I actually thrive off of stressful environments, but the first two takes I was just like, “okay.” I think I kind of got settled into what felt good and it honestly was just really enjoyable to be at the beach all day long and experience what a hustle it really is to get through that long of a day videotaping yourself all day long. Lots of cameras on you – that‘s something I was not used to – but good thing for a glam team that’s got you in check the whole time. So yea, it was a really cool experience.

The Knockturnal: Absolutely. You’ve been writing all these songs for a while. How long has the EP been in the works for?

Eloise Alterman: So I’ve been writing the songs for about two years. The EP was originally supposed to be an album when I signed, and so I wrote it as an album. But as we were talking – as a new artist, too – and with people’s attention’s spans, especially breaking through in the beginning, I didn’t know if I wanted to come out with a huge project of songs. I think some of them could get lost within each other. And so we came up with “The Hurting Phase” being the first phase. That’s what I was really feeling in the beginning of heartache. The process since then has kind of just been… my favorite part is the creative part after the writing, you know? Coming up with the cover and kind of what I want to come across and picking the songs for it, too. Going through and remembering the order I’d written them in and staying true to that because I don’t want to put songs on there when I was starting to feel even a little bit better. This EP is supposed to really encompass the roller coaster in the beginning of feeling really sad.

The Knockturnal: Speaking of roller coasters – just from talking to people today, hearing what people have had to say about you, about the set and everything – so many people are so excited for your music and you’re starting to get a lot of attention. How does that feel? What are those emotions like?

Eloise Alterman: It makes me feel really, really special. And it’s such an interesting feeling. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt like this in my life before. But, you know, life is hard as a teenager, and middle school and even just moving to Nashville and not feeling special in so many different phases of my life. It’s so weird now to have all these people who care a lot about you but also care a lot about your career. It really does take a team and I would not be able to be doing any of it without… I mean, there’s so many hands on deck with just even getting this music out. And being able to have that weight lifted where I can focus on the writing and the stuff I’m actually good at instead of the business side and all that. But it’s really crazy to look around and be like, all these people are like, it’s like having a family a little bit. Just a support team. It also makes me more creative. Because when you know you can bounce ideas off people, there’s someone to listen to you all the time. I love it.

Stream Eloise’s New EP Sad Bird here!

May 6, 2022 0 comments

Music The Latest

Pitch Perfect Perception – Finding the Harmony with Singer Isabelle Fries

by ElizaBeth Taylor May 6, 2022

written by ElizaBeth Taylor

Every generation has a prolific voice that echoes in the hearts and minds of listeners. It gives them direction and a sense of purpose.

May 6, 2022 0 comments

Music The Latest

Speedy, Surprising, & Space-inspired: Review of the Fender Player Plus Meteora

by Michelle DeLateur April 20, 2022

written by Michelle DeLateur

The name Meteora could refer to a Marvel Avenger; maybe Nebula’s long lost cousin from deep in space. In actuality, that’s not actually far off: the original Fender Meteora came from the Parallel Universe collection, a futuristic set of instruments released in 2018. And now, in 2022, the Fender Player Plus Meteora HH has returned from its otherworldly adventures, complete with a unique look and agile engineering, to help players stand out in both character and speed.

April 20, 2022 0 comments

Music The Latest

Gucci Mane and Alison Wonderland Join Milk + Cookies Fest

by Chantell Hayden April 19, 2022

written by Chantell Hayden

Milk + Cookies is bringing back their iconic Spring Block Fest and this year it will be taking place at Centennial Yards in Atlanta on Saturday, June 4^th.

April 19, 2022 0 comments

Entertainment Koncerts Music The Latest

Preview: Elrow Takes on Madrid in an XXL Way

by Paula Espinoza April 13, 2022

written by Paula Espinoza

If you are in the electronic music scene (and even if you aren’t) you have most likely heard of the unbelievable parties that Elrow throws. Now, if you are in Madrid this Friday the 15^th of April, you will be able to, for the first time ever, be a part of their biggest party yet: ELROW TOWN.

April 13, 2022 0 comments

Music The Latest

Skip Marley Takes on New York as he headlines Gramercy Theater

by Chris K. Singh April 5, 2022

written by Chris K. Singh

Skip Marley, the grand-son of the Reggae music pioneer Bob Marley, took the stage of Gramercy Theater around 9. As the concert began, it was clear that Skip Marley is not only set out to make his own mark on the music industry but he will do it in his own way with his own sound.

April 5, 2022 0 comments

Music The Latest

Khaid Talks Upbringing, Being a Rising Teenager Star and Latest Single: “With You” with The Knockturnal

by JaJuan Malachi March 25, 2022

written by JaJuan Malachi

At the tender age of only 17 years old, Afrobeats newcomer Khaid is adamant about bringing a youthful feel to the relatively mature landscape of the beloved genre.

March 25, 2022 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts