The Voice’s Keisha Renee Can’t Wait To Share Her Version of Pop Country

THE VOICE -- "Live Top 12" Episode 1317A -- Pictured: Keisha Renee -- (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC)

Los Angeles based Keisha Renee worked as a back-up singer for Adam Lambert, Nicki Minaj and more. She also competed on American Idol season 10. After major life changes–she had a child and lost weight–the singer found her way to The Voice. Gospel is her roots, but while living in Houston, she discovered country music and hasn’t looked back. Eliminated from the competition at Top 8, Keisha was a member of Team Blake Shelton from the beginning. In a conference call with reporters, the singer talked about exploring her love of country music, choosing songs with Blake, and more.

What’s next for Keisha: I have a lot of great things in store. I’m really excited to actually get my new music out because I’m been working on the country pop soul lane that I was trying to express on the show.  And then I have a few shows lined up in January. Just giving my new fan base–I always had a strong fan base in the soul and pop genre but my newfound love of country and the country community that embraced me so lovingly, I can’t wait to give them my vision of the artist that I always saw myself as.

When can we expect new music?  I’ve actually started working on my vision of country pop soul about four years ago. I’m revisiting some of those songs that are still great right now, just brushing up on them because we are held to a contract for a period of time. So in that down time, I plan on re-visiting those songs, making many final tweaks to that as well as recording some new ones that I already have lined up. Just release great music–like a five to seven [song] EP–shop that around for a deal. But just put music out there because I definitely want everyone to clearly get the vision of what country pop soul is from my point of view.

On her relationship with coach Blake Shelton. What did she learn about the country music world? I definitely took a lot of things away from Blake. Mainly being true to who I am, not allowing anything to change my decision. This is where my heart is. Go for it no matter what. And that’s something that I already had, but to have the validation from someone in the country industry gave me the extra confidence that I needed to stick by what I believe, and what I’m inspired by, and what type of music I want to put out there. So if anything, it would just be to stay to the plan. Stay its course, so to speak.

Did they choose songs together? Yes. Towards the end, I definitely started speaking up more to what I wanted to do. In the beginning I believed that they wanted to take a more traditional country [route] and that’s not what I was aspiring to be. I definitely didn’t want to lose who I was. Soul and gospel and pop is all I’ve ever done my whole life, but my new love of country — the storytelling aspect, the instrumentation — is what I wanted to implement. I never wanted to be a traditional country singer. When I started getting songs that were, you know, more like Patsy Cline and even the Elvis–I felt like okay, this is not the song choice. But I went along with it because I did not know everything about country, so of course I wanted to be a student. I didn’t want to be a teacher in this process. I wanted to learn. I went along with a lot of things, but around the live [shows] is when I decided to speak up for myself. And that is when we came up with “Midnight Train to Georgia.” From that point on, we definitely [had] conversations before song choices were made.

On watching iTunes chart numbers week to week. Did they influence song choices? In my case, I didn’t know everything about country music, so I definitely leaned on my coach a lot for his advisement on what songs to sing.  I definitely want to stay true to my idea of what country pop soul is. That’s why I’m really excited for my original music to come out, because I think it’ll paint a better picture and connect a lot of dots for a lot of people. But with my experience on the show, I definitely enjoyed all of the new country songs that I was exposed to. But absolutely, I definitely wanted to do popular songs that would do well that were fan favorites.

On her favorite The Voice Performance, and Why It’s really hard to pick. Can I pick like two? Or three! For me I would have to say it’s a tie between “I Hope You Dance” because of the message behind it. It was for my baby girl and all people, not even just girls. Just anybody to know that we have options in life. And even though life isn’t perfect, choose the option to dance it out instead of feeling sorry for yourself or sitting it out. I really wanted that to be the heart behind the song, to just inspire people. A lot of times we go through life doing things for other people, but we always often forget about ourselves. So that was one of my favorites. And then I think it would have to be a tie between “Midnight Train to Georgia” and “All by Myself.” Both are two songs that I grew up loving, and the opportunity to put a country spin on it, was just like a dream come true. So out of those three, those are my top.

On maybe moving to Nashville: It definitely has crossed my mind. I definitely want to take a moment because, the holiday season is coming up. I’ve been away from my baby for so long. This process has been maybe six months or seven months going strong. So once the dust settles, I definitely would love to visit there, get the vibe, and definitely take a vacation there–an extended stay to see what’s happening. But that has crossed my mind a few times. But I do have a child and my village that helps me out. They are LA-based. So it would definitely have to be something that I think about long and hard.

About mj santilli 34841 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!