Shenseea Hits Top 5 On Spotify’s Global Charts
Three years ago when I spoke to Shenseea in the studio at Romeich Entertainment HQ, she predicted her imminent success. A confessed former church girl, she had the confidence and ambition to articulate her international success and musical goals long before her name was being mentioned at the top of Jamaican music.
“In five years I will be an international artist and in seven years I want to pursue a career in acting,” she said at the time.
At least one of those predictions has already come through with two years to spare as she is the first Jamaican artist to make the top 5 on Spotify’s Global Daily Chart, a chart based on paid streams, in 5 years.
Yesterday, her song OK OK pt 2 with Kanye West went to number 5 globally and in Australia, number 4 on the Spotify US, Canada and Bulgaria Daily Charts, number 6 on the Daily UK and Daily Dubai Spotify charts, number 15 in Austria, number 11 in Belgium and a few other countries.
Sean Paul’s Cheap Thrills collab with Sia had previously peaked at No. 3 in 2016 on Spotify’s Global chart.
For the people who are just now being introduced to Shenseea, or anyone speculating on what she had to do to reach the top of the charts and score collaborations with Kanye West, here are her own words describing how her work ethic, drive and openness led her to become one of the hottest artists in 2021.
She has been performing at major events on the International scene for the past few weeks, however, the Be Good singer has been traveling and performing all over the world long before she announced a new management team lead by Sal XO.
“I travel a lot and I get to experience different audiences. Performing for me now is fun. Years ago anywhere I go I had to have dancers behind me to boost my confidence. I tell them if anything goes wrong they should take the attention (distract them). But now, it’s like the majority of the time I don’t feel like I need anybody on the stage with me. Many times I tell everyone to come off the stage because I want to grab their full attention.. you get me?” she said.
“It’s really experience that helped to mold me and I am really proud of myself because I never once back down. Romeich (her manager) had people come in teach me to perform but performance comes with your personality and nobody can teach you that. They can teach choreography but the connection has to be natural.”
Never one to back down from trying new things, Shenseea delivered a scintillating freestyle on Hot 97 with FunkMaster Flex. Her vibrato freestyle caught the eyes of Kanye West who asked her to join him at his listening party in Chicago, according to a post from a member of her new Management circle.
“I was always an outspoken child and was told never to talk under my breath. I was always shouting. Even when I am expressing myself I was always loud so that was training my voice to be strong but the control comes from the beat. When I hear the bassline and kick in the rhythm, I know that’s definitely Dancehall and that chop “manish-womanish” sound comes out, and that helped me to channel my voice.”
“When I am onstage I say ‘ok for this next song I will tone it down a bit’, and midway I just say Yeah this is me, deal with it. It also grabs the attention of people and keeps them anticipating”.
Many people were surprised to see that Shenseea was a writer when her name was credited on Pure Souls along with Kanye West on the Donda album, but like her infectious voice and captivating presence on stage, she has been developing her songwriting abilities for years.
“Yes I do. I write my music. I have over 100 songs and I wrote most of them. Doesn’t mean I won’t take a song from someone. We should be more open to songwriters but only if the song makes sense,” she said.
It’s a skill that will certainly take her far in the music business as long as she organizes her publishing.
Inspired by Nicky Minaj and Rihanna but she more than others can effortlessly switch from rapping to DJing (rapping in dancehall lingua) to give herself a musical edge. Her American peers may try to do this with some practice but for Shenseea, she has lived the culture and is taking it to the world,
“Jamaican all the way. I can’t do rap 100 percent HipHop lingua I have to add some dancehall in it”.
When she announced new management in July people were speculating that she would have abandoned her former manager Romiech Major. However her gratitude for his involvement in her career has been constant and in 2018 she said “Well..Romeich is like a hero to me. Hero. I came from nothing, and if someone can see you and invest so much in you and work so hard and keep pushing and pushing he’s like a hero to me”.