At one time the all-girl pop/R&B group, Danity Kane, was the first group to have two albums in the US charts simultaneously, but as their reality show showed, it was doomed to fall apart. Since, only one former member has managed to build a career in music for herself after Danity Kane. Her name is Dawn Richard (pronounced with a French twist –> Ri-Shard).
She continued songwriting with P. Diddy and launched a solo career, even when the group were reuniting, or at least trying to. On her own, she’s a very creative and focus artist. She has reinvented herself from her girl group days. Her look became edgier and she started experimenting with her music.
Simply going by the name DΔWN now - “Cos nobody knows how to pronounce my last name anyway”, as she said during The Breakfast Club - you can now turn to her for some EDM tracks, with some R&B influences.
Some of her songs remind you of Beyoncé, and the comparison between the two has been mentioned before, when she released the video for “Bombs”, which seemed to resemble Beyoncé’s “Who Run The World (Girls)” video. She’s also jusaid during The Breakfast Clubfor herself after Danity Kane. t as innovative in her music, surprising with a new sound with pretty much each single.
Her latest release, “Not Above That” might start off reminding you of the huskiness in Selena Gomez’ “Good For You”, but where that song turns very radio friendly, this song quickly intrigues due to its underground appeal. Predictability is not part of this song. It keeps surprising, due to the use of vocals and pace.
It’s clear that DΔWN is definitely choosing her own route, and not just musically. She’s learned from her Danity Kane days, where many factors can delay a project and too many people have too much to say about the music. So, she’s not afraid to take risks to keep the music coming out. And the strategy works. She’s prolific and DΔWN has been able to convince many music critics of her talent.
At the end of last year, she even covered Adele’s “Hello” (but who hasn’t, really?), giving it her own unique EDM sound. It’s those things that manages to keep her interesting to music fans out there.
Her new album “The Red Era” is expected to be released later this year. “Not Above That” is the second single from that album.
