Excited

I am absolutely excited. This year has been wonderful for my singing career. I have gained fans all over the world. I looked at my YouTube views and there are viewers from Russia, Serbia, Brazil, Italy, Spain, France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Kenya, Uganda, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Iceland, Ecuador, New Zealand, Czech Republic, South Korea, Argentina, Jamaica, Barbados, Israel . . . I could go on and on, it’s would probably be easier to list the countries where I don’t have viewers at this point. That is SO exciting to me. Just think, a whole world away, there is someone who knows my name, may not even be able to understand me but enjoys the sound of my voice. I think I smell a world tour coming. At one point, I was checking my views everyday to see what new country had come on to the Key Key train but I’ve cut back to a couple times a week now. Amazing. It proves that anyone can have influence on an entire world, hey, Michael Jackson did.

I have spent this year singing with the greatest musicians and at shows. This year, I’ve been singing as the Lead Female Vocalist with Just’s Friends, a band of men that are all member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. They were founded on November 17, 1911 and this year has been spent celebrating their 100 Year Anniversary. As a part of the Centennial Conclave, we performed for the Military Honors Ball at the Washington Convention Center in July. Top officials of the United States Government who are members of the fraternity were present and honored. On Friday, November 18th, the Just’s Friends and I will open for the Godfather of Go Go Chuck Brown celebrate Founder's Week. How awesome is that?! I, as a native of Washington, D.C. where Go Go was created will be able to say I opened for a D.C. Legend and musical icon . . . WHOA!! I can hardly wait. By the way, you can still get tickets at Ticketmaster.

In August, I was chosen as one of 10 finalists to compete in the Budweiser Superfest Opening Act Competition in Charlotte, N.C. Out of thousands of applications, I made the top 10! I didn’t win but I met some great singers and had a great time. I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world. It did however confirm that I wasn’t making a mistake pursuing a career as a performer but gave me insight to my target audience, my style and where I fit.

Then, just last month, I found myself singing at the Pre-Reception Gala for the Executive Leadership Council’s 25th Anniversary Recognition Gala with Nicholaus Mack of Sharp9 Entertainment. Before I looked up the ELC, I thought it was going to be a little program, a few songs and done. OH NO!! I clicked on the ELC’s website and got blown away. These were the top minority executives gathering to honor extraordinary leadership and give out student scholarships. Can you say Ursula Brown, Chairman and CEO of Xerox? The first African-American woman CEO to head a fortune 500 company, she was present and honored that night. And to top that, Diana Ross was the main entertainment for the evening and Kool & the Gang would be headlining the after party. And the Sponsors? ING Direct (notice the orange background in the picture), Target, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, PepsiCo. and more. WHAT?!?!?!

How did I get to all of this in one year? I made a decision a few years ago that if I would say yes to all singing engagements, even if I was nervous about it, I would do it as long as my safety or health wasn’t in danger and look what happened.

If this is what happens when you have one single out, my goodness, what is in store after I finish this CD? My goodness, I can hardly wait. Last week, The Collective will be performed at Busboys & Poets in Hyattsville, MD right before our weekly Ustream chat on Thursdays at 8pm EST. I always enjoy myself when we all perform on the same stage. It’s just like singing with my family. (Check us out on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/TheCollectiveTV)

Every day, something happens to remind me how good this is going to be and I just get more and more excited. Hope you stick around to watch.
Keyona

All Gigs aren't Good Gigs

All gigs aren’t good gigs.
I love singing at weddings. I especially love it when the groom is involved in choosing the songs, the themes and seems to be enjoying the experience. I’ve been lucky enough to sing at weddings where the bride and groom agree on the songs, colors, and what they chose had meaning to their relationship and journey. I recently did something to a bride that I would never want to happen to anyone. I didn’t show up to sing. BEFORE you yell at me, let me tell you what happened. Originally, the bride wanted me to sing two songs, “Love” by Musiq SoulChild and “So Amazing” by Luther Vandross. I was immediately apprehensive because 1, she didn’t have a musician playing at her wedding so it would all be to a track and 2, “Love” starts quite low in my range and without a HOT mic, no one would hear anything I said until I got to the chorus. I urged her, a month before her wedding to get a musician to do filler music and play the two songs. Two weeks before her wedding, she calls to say that her Pastor has approved the two songs and no, she would not be using a musician for any part of the wedding. Now, I believe in keeping your costs low if you cannot afford a grandiose wedding, but some things, you should NOT skimp on especially if you want a professional to sing at your wedding. HELLO!!! PROFESSIONAL here; this means I don’t want to look like a fool singing at your wedding.
I show up to the wedding rehearsal (you know it was a Friday night and I wanted to go out and play). The bridal party finally shows up and they get started on rehearsing. Now, for the life of me, I still can’t figure out why we need to rehearse walking down the aisle - as many weddings as I’ve been in, I seem to do the same thing every time but okay, I’ll go with the bit. Once I sat down and took a look at the sanctuary, I realized that I would not have enough time to sing either of the songs. The aisle was short and the bridal party was not big enough to take up the time for the songs. Also, the person who would be doing the sound was not at the rehearsal. This is a problem. So, whatever we decided that night would not be confirmed until we got to the wedding the next day. O_o <- - - - - yes, this was my face. The bride agreed that “Love” was too long and she would use the instrumental and have the sound person just fade it out – again, not there to rehearse it, not sure if they would even know what to do. I suggested to her that she do the same thing with “So Amazing” because as she walks down the aisle and gets to the end, I would still have a substantial amount of song left to sing before even getting to the vamp. AND, since I would be singing it to the track, it would be quite obvious that this song is either too long or we cut it short. THIS is why I urge all brides to get a musician at your wedding; that is NOT a cost you should cut. A musician can change the key, shorten or rearrange the song to fit your needs. I can’t do that at the ninth hour with an instrumental track. Wait, you realize there is no sound person here so there is no microphone for me to sing into to check the volume against the track right? This is a catastrophe waiting to happen; I’ve seen it happen a million times, even to me.
I’m sitting with the bride going over other things in her wedding that have not been solidified; I’m feeling like a last minute hired coordinator here. She then turns to me and asks, “You’ve done a lot of weddings?”
“Yes” in my, “I could help this go better for you” tone but I decide to pull back and see if she’ll make a decision. Oh, what decision you ask? If she really wants me to sing and what she wants me to do if I’m still singing when she gets to the altar. She never answers. Before I leave, I tell her to call me and let me know what she decides. Now, I know, there are so many things going through the mind of a bride but please, assign these things to someone if you can’t make up your mind. Time ticks . . . 9pm, 10pm, 11pm, and midnight. I’m going to bed; she hasn’t called and I gave her my recommendation to use the instrumental tracks instead of a live vocalist. I know, y’all may think it to be cruel, but I’ve already given her the discount price and now we’re down to one song that I may not even get through. Let me save her the rest of her money and not be there is what I’m thinking. The wedding starts at 11:00 am on Saturday morning. At 8:30 am, I get a call from an irate bridesmaid, “[The bride] wants to know if you’re singing or not.” TIME OUT!! If that’s a question you have to ask . . . you already know the answer. I gave the bride instructions to let me know what she decided, that did not mean call me the morning of your wedding but let me know before the day arrives. I gently reply, “No, I won’t be singing.” You know what happened next . . . she went all the way irate on me. “What, so you’re saying the morning of her wedding, you decide you’re not coming?”
“Wait. The bride and I talked last night and I gave her my recommendation and instructions to call me and let me know her decision. You’re asking this morning is not . . .”
(She cuts me off) “I can’t believe this . . .”
At this point, I don’t know what she’s saying because now she’s mad but I’m thinking, does it not seem odd to you that you’re calling me at this hour to find this out? Don’t you remember seeing me last night at the wedding rehearsal? You must know that if you were told to call me, there is something going on. How about you advise your bride that it’s very late to be getting that detail straight? I have NEVER not shown up for a wedding. I know that it is a very important day but I could not in my right mind waste her money or embarrass myself. And when I asked the significance of the songs, let’s just say, I wasn’t moved. There was only one other wedding I didn’t do because the song was a duet; we couldn’t find a guy to sing and rearranging it would have taken away from the song; it was way too popular to do that.
I don’t usually think of singing at weddings as an opportunity to make money. It is supposed to be a beautiful day where God gets the glory for bringing two people together; a day where two (or three) families get together to agree on a union and sometimes, make peace. Singing at weddings is usually a pleasure for me whether it’s for fee or free but this just didn’t seem right. So, I have decided that I’m not just taking every gig that comes and it will never be based on how much I’ll make but how it feels in my gut, my soul, what my intuition says. I wish I could tell you that I felt bad about showing up, but I don’t. I hope that she had a beautiful ceremony and has wonderful marriage. Maybe, just maybe, my attitude and feelings about her decision is why I didn’t need to be there. Maybe God decided my presence didn’t need to be in the mix. I’m okay with that. It gave me a chance to get much needed rest.
All gigs aren’t good gigs.

An Artist Trapped in Corporate America

"I'm an artist and I'm sensitive about my _____." Erykah Badu says right before debuting her song "Tyrone" for a live audience. That is ever so true. I used to be sensitive about my work at my 9 to 5 Corporate Job. I used to take it to heart if I got disciplined or if my work wasn't regarded as perfect and above expectation. It made me a perfectionist and unable to just let some things fly. Spreadsheet columns had to be perfect, color coded cells, document margins perfect, addendums and notes pages immaculate. Then, one day, I realized how unimportant all of that was to me. Singing, dancing, performing on stage was the place I needed to be perfect. I needed to be able to leave the stage satisfied - as if just finishing my favorite ice cream, Cookies and Cream (mmm, yummy).

"How do I do this?" is the question I ask everyday. No lie, everyday. Everyday, I send out tweets, facebook posts, past the link to my ReverbNation page, look for artists to collaborate with, view this hits on my YouTube Page and pray I'm not making a mistake. Then I wonder, should I just quit my job and go full force? It would be easier to go on auditions for plays and voice overs, finish writing songs and book studio time but you already know, my pockets wouldn't like that very much. Really, this is just like deciding whether to start your own business or not. Artists are now business owners, especially independent artists like me and my friends of The Collective (be sure to watch the reality show). Unless you go on American Idol or The Voice, getting "discovered" is not what it used to be and everyone is afraid of getting those dreaded deals that leave you broke anyway. But I want out of this rat race (Thanks Robert Kiyosaki).
My manager and team lead and really, all of my co-workers are excited for me and the things I do to further my career in entertainment but I'm not completely sure they all understand that any day now, I want to be done. I don't think they all believe still in dreams. I've reached that point where I can't do anything but believe that it will happen; I will release project after project, they will all be good, I will tour the world and I will be able to tell my children that I did it and enjoyed it. The rehearsals, photo shoots, recording sessions, writing sessions, lack of sleep, exercise programs, musician auditions, let downs, shady gigs, all of it . . . I want it. You might be thinking, "What happens if you don't get it?" Not an option. I'm not interested in being rich, but rather want to live off my passion and talent. How many people can say they felt appreciated and fully compensated for their work? Not many. Most of us will quickly complain about being underpaid, overlooked and over qualified for the positions we have in the Corporate World. I guess that does make me an entrepreneur at heart; the desire to create something out of nothing and receive adequate compensation for it based on the work, time and energy I put in to it. This isn't an easy thing to do when we've been conditioned to think you must go to school, get good grades, get a good job, work hard for recognition and a 3% living wage increase and pray you have enough money to retire on. Pause (place your curse words here). Nah, I ain't going down like that. I am proud of my degrees from the University of Richmond and Trinity University (DC) but I now understand what I am supposed to use them for . . . to Manage the Brand that is Keyona Ham.
I hope that you will follow me on this roller coaster and pass on my ranting to people who love a good success story, because that’s where I’m going and know that every morning, I pray to God and say, “As soon as you want me to start counting down, I will.”