Title: About Christmas
Artist: Lauren O?Keefe
Label: Quark Records
(Genre: Pop/Dance-Holiday)
Right on time for the holidays we get this beautiful electronica house music number dedicated to Christmas and the holidays. Very good piece ! to drop for the holidays.
Review by SammyRock - Cyberjamz Radio
About Lauren:
Lauren O?Keefe has achieved what so many people in this industry strive for: touring the country as a member of a successful Pop/R&B group. Boston-based girl group JADA consists of four girls (Lauren, Elle, Jacyn, and April) who have been together and ?worked for 10 years!? With the help of Bristol Studios and producer RIO they have found deserved success and worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry.
O?Keefe started singing when she was very young and was always drawn to the arts and loved to sing, act, and dance. She participated in all of the plays and musicals in her high school and at Emerson College where she received a degree in the arts with concentrations in music and theatre. Growing up in Yardley, PA, O?Keefe could always be found entertaining others, ?I used to put on shows for whoever would watch!?
But it wasn?t until she auditioned for and became a member of JADA that she realized what she wanted to do musically. She started taking vocal lessons back in 2001 with Bristol Recording and Voice Studios owner Ric Poulin, and now teaches at Bristol Studios as one of their lead vocal coaches. With the expertise and guidance she found at Bristol Studios, O?Keefe was able to learn and then fine tune her pop/r&b vocals through Ric Poulin's vocal method, The Bristol Method. The other JADA members (April Forrest, Jacyn Tremblay, and Elle Wine) were also trained in this method and made their start with Bristol Studios, eventually signing with Universal/Motown Records, where they put out two singles and a music video. JADA's first single ?American Cowboy? (Akon, RedOne) proved to be an international hit.
The virtuoso girl group earned the prestigious honor of being awarded a Boston Music Award for ?Best Pop/R&B Group?. Jada?s music can be found featured on FOX?s ?House? and MTV?s ?The City?, as well as on the ?Bring It On 4: In It To Win It? soundtrack. The girls have showed that they can draw an audience and produce entertaining shows having had two major radio tours, including Boston?s KISS concert at the Comcast Center. They?ve also performed all over the country with many different artists.
?We performed with Akon, The Black Eyed Peas, Ciara, Sean Kingston, and Flo Rida at Boston?s KISS concert, to name a few. We have also performed with Boyz II Men, Ashanti, Jesse McCartney, Susan Tedeschi, and more! We have performed at the Simon dTOUR Live concert series, Hard Rock Cafe, Viper Room in LA, for Teen Vogue and Seventeen Magazine events, and Bravo?s Real Housewives of Atlanta.
JADA has also performed at Madison Square Garden in NYC and shown their patriotism and Boston pride, having sung the National Anthem at many Celtics, Patriots, Bruins, and Red Sox games. Being able to sing in front of thousands of people, perform beside other talented artists, and travel the country have all been very special achievements for them. When asked about what we should be on the lookout for when it comes to JADA, O?Keefe told Bristol about some exciting new developments.
?Right now we are working on solo projects, but we have two new singles out on iTunes! One of them, "Stop My Heart" (Jay Dhabi), just reached number 23 on the dance charts!?
O?Keefe describes herself as a perfectionist and is a talented songwriter working towards recording a full-length album. She is currently in the process of doing so with five songs written that are almost ready to record, but before that happens she wants to make sure that they are (you guessed it) perfect. Being a passionate artist, songwriting for O?Keefe isn?t mechanical, rather it is inspired.
?It is something that can't be forced. I have tried to force a song to be written and it never works out. My best songs have just come to me at 2am in my bedroom on a weeknight and were written in an hour!?
Highly attracted to neo-soul and r&b music, it is no wonder that O?Keefe?s main influences are Stevie Wonder and D?Angelo. She finds them to be incredible artists and aspires to sing like them, hoping one day to have the honor to collaborate with Wonder.
?They have a way of singing where you get lost in their melodies and harmonies. Their songs have always moved me. Being a vocal instructor and a professional artist for over 10 years I need to know all about pop music. I have taken apart and studied so many songs and genres that it can take a lot for me to get "moved" by a song; I am usually thinking more about technique rather than just enjoying the music. But D'Angelo and Stevie will always move me no matter how much I study their music!?