Debut album "Things Happen For A Reason" available September 25th, 2007
The armies of club-goers sweating to the fusion of hard hip-hop, exuberant pop and complex, sensual dancehall rhythms in CHE'NELLEs double debut UK single, I Fell In Love With The DJ and US single "Hurry Up", are ahead of the curve in discovering her, as the club underground always is. But her new album, CHE'NELLE, makes it abundantly clear that CHE'NELLE is a multi-leveled talent, a beauty, and a personality who will soon prove herself irresistible to the massive mainstream of the worldwide urban and pop audience.
Already a hit songwriter in her home country of Australia, where she is set to open for Kanye Wests upcoming tour, CHE'NELLE, 22, signed her first recording deal in America with Virgin Records, discovered by club DJ and radio vet Sir Charles Dixon. She completed her Virgin debut album -- almost entirely self-written -- with production help from hit-making A-listers including Sean Garrett ( Beyonces "Ring The Alarm", Pussy Cat Dolls "Buttons", Ciara's "Goodies, Chris Brown's "Run It"), Rich Harrison (Amerie "1 Thing", Beyonce's "Crazy In Love") and a list of hot up-and-comers from New York, Toronto, London and Australia. A satisfying combination of compulsive rhythmic music and soul-deep, intimate ballads, CHE'NELLE serves notice that a major new singer-songwriter is on the scene. And it announces unmistakably CHE'NELLEs unforced yet irresistible knack for drawing lines between every form of contemporary rhythm-based music, creating a fresh, essential music for the new urban world of the millennium and beyond uniting both music and listeners.
CHE'NELLE, born in Malaysia and relocated to Australia at age 10, was raised in an environment where music and singing without notice of genre boundaries was a daily feature of home life. Her father, a civil engineer and architect, loved the classic pop balladeers of the Sixties, and her mother brought home every kind of rhythmic dance music, singing her daughter to sleep with her favorite new R&B and reggae songs. As every child does, CHE'NELLE charmed her parents with her singing, but she also amused and astonished her father in his karaoke lounge when she ignored the flashing lyrics to improvise her own, and invented her own words so that she could sing him songs shed heard just that day in a video. I was so young I didnt even remember it until he told me that recently, she laughs. He said he knew it wasnt how the songs went, but then he noticed that the words made sense. Maybe thats where my lyric writing began, subconsciously!
CHE'NELLEs hometown, Perth, is a city of over 1.5 million residents on the western coast of Australia, on the opposite end of the continent from the countrys largest city, Sydney. Despite the countrys distinguished history in pop and rock, which claims such international stars as Olivia Newton-John, Peter Allen, Men at Work, INXS, and, more recently, pop-dance icon Kylie Minogue and the rock band Jet, the Australian music business had never launched a major international star in any urban-related idiom.
Without any local role models (but, consequently, without any suffocating formulas to unlearn), CHE'NELLE was drawn naturally toward the music that fulfilled her most: hip-hop, reggae dancehall, neo-soul ballads, and the new R&B. Whitney Houston, inevitably, was a key influence, but so was the local club scene, which thrived on hip-hop and dancehall. Something in me was hungry for that, because I wasnt brought up with Motown or R&B, she recounts. I was looking for Luther, Mary J., all the jazz cats, Ella Fitzgerald. There were a few of us who used to go to the one under-age hip-hop dance, which was once a week and on school holidays --maybe 200 people, cramped up in the room. CHE'NELLEs brief but impressive professional history and her music itself are living proof in microcosm of the influence of hip-hop as a universal grounding force a force as natural, powerful and essential to global youth as gravity, or sunlight.
At age seventeen, CHE'NELLE was initially confused to walk into her university music class and find it filled with electronic keyboards and computer equipment. She had performed with a top 40 cover band on weekends since her mid-teens, honing her skills as a live entertainer, but began to long for the satisfaction of singing her own songs. In order to make her own song demos, and without money for a producer, studio time or vocalists, she mastered the technology so well that she set up a bedroom studio at home, working with an outdated computer and borrowed software. At the same time, she knuckled down to learning music theory and song structure, and taught herself the demanding art of arranging and singing background vocals. Finishing her degree in music, she signed to a music publishing company as a staff songwriter about two years ago.
At the time, CHE'NELLE considered herself primarily a ballad singer, finding kindred spirits in India.Arie and Musiq Soulchild, whose life-like, conversational works are paralleled in the album highlights My Pledge and 2nd Nature. But she also began writing songs in the hard club style of hip-hop and dancehall, following the footsteps of such empowered female singer/songwriter/producer triple-threats as Arie, Missy Elliott and Alicia Keys. She cut vocals prolifically for local hip-hop and reggae mix-tape producers, winning competitions across the country, establishing her voice on the local urban radio and club underground, and attracting notice as far away as Sweden, London and the U.S. west coast. One of the songs she co-wrote, Hell, No! was chosen as the debut single of Ricki-Lee Coulter, a finalist in the second season of the Australian Idol competition, and it scored CHE'NELLE her first national top 5 hit as a songwriter, with an impressive 21-week run in the Australian top 100 chart and a gold single certification.
Although CHE'NELLE counts that hit as a relatively modest start, Things started happening really fast after that, she says. My production manager, Sir Charles Dixon, found my website on myspace.com; we were in contact about seven months, and he flew down to see me in Perth. Within a week after he went back, literally, he told me that Virgin Records wanted to bring me over to New York. They had a deal waiting for me.
Now, shes fashioned an album of genuine accomplishment and emotion, confidently working across the wide, eclectic spectrum of the new urban music. Although her personal history could be called a reflection of urban musics own best multi-cultural instincts, which have surfaced recently in everything from the crucial South Asian elements of Jamaican dancehall and Caribbean soca, to the massive eruption of Spanglish bilingualism in reggaeton, the truth is that CHE'NELLEs ethnicity is transparent in her music, and its her personality thats crucial to her lyrics -- as any individuals would be. Perth is a laid-back, relaxed place, and straightforward. Thats the Australian part of me, she says. The storytelling my issues, feelings, relationships, how I see myself coming up as a person, thats the side that comes from my Malaysian upbringing.
But its only CHE'NELLEs philosophy and outlook thats laid-back, judging from her compelling and magnetic work on CHE'NELLE: in this debut, the unbounded joy of music is front and center. What youre seeing now is seven or eight years of work, she says. Recording is like my physical release, and songwriting is my mental release -- the stories and issues Ive heard about and want to express. Performing is the product of those releases. Every artist is given a blessing to release their feelings through music.
For Bookings Contact Mark Siegel at International Creative Management phone 212-556-7957 and email [email protected]
For more information, please contact:
Charles Dixon, SCIP Records (MANAGEMENT) (917) 601 6809 [email protected]
Melissa Victor, Virgin Records (PUBLICIST) (212) 786-8318 [email protected]
On the Web: http://www.myspace.com/chenelleworld and http://www.chenelle-world.com
Che'Nelle Press Clipings
NOTE {This is your custom masthead} .masthead {width: 746px; height: 150px; position: absolute; margin-left: -425px; left: 65%; top: 550px; background-image: url();}
Quote: "THINGS HAPPEN FOR A REASON" "music is so powerful that it has the power to control your emotions, thoughts and inner being."
Where am i.. perth (w.a) but currently based in new jersey /NYC The place I represent is... perth, WEST AUTRALIA!!! (aussie aussie aussie! oi! oi! oi!) sabah, kota kinabalu MALAYSIA!!! (malaysia boleh!)
My 1 video: the best video out now is... my video!!! just kidding .i'm liking the "same girl" video" best video to me right now. "tambourine" by EVE and SWIZZ BEATZ
Dream concert... a small village in fiji. hahah nah.. probably Madison Sq garden and Wembly stadium. every damn concert's a dream damn it! ; )
My all-time favorite movie is... "NOTEBOOK"!! (yes girly indeed) other movies i can't help watchin: comin to america, friday, just like heaven, walk the line, 10 things i hate about you, dirty dancing, gia, the green mile, 40 year old virgin, brokeback mountain (haha jus kiddin), the pursuit of happiness (go will smith and his lil bub woww), i recently watched because i said so and daddy's little girls .. two awesome movies man... to me anyways..
The best place to shop is... dunno i don't really loveeee shoppin haha but when i do . . louis vutton, prada, gucci hahahah are u kidding!?? macy's will do dude!! and canal street.i like bebe's too, i dunno whatever that doesnt kill my budget lol i ain't Paris Hilton yet! lol when i need an outfit i picture what i want.. im in and im out.. i lie.. sometimes i spend a lot of time shoppin only because im tryin to budget or i can't find what i was lookin for ; ( haha FIFI HELP! my hot stylist! she's my saviour when it comes to wardrobe.
My dream date is... .... hmmm.. with a genuine, trustworthy, understanding supportive, ambitioius man.. a good looker would be a bonus.. lol but i don't usually fall for that first.. someone that makes me laugh and listens to my silly stories.. an honest down to earth fun loving guy, thats spontanious, spiritual and patient.. is that to much to ask??!! it is actually haha.. hmm where have all those GUYS gone.. nah but ladies we can't buy them in boxes like made products unfortunately hahahahahaha but aye the good ones are out there somewhere.. ladies don't fret, don't believe that all guys are all the same or bisexual haha.. the more u focus on that the more ass$%@ u'll get ; ) truth!
What I want you to know about me... i'm crazy haha a good crazy though. i'm a chick that is in love with music obviously and always will continue to create her expereinces and inspirations through song. i love my fans and growing fans. i love giving and making people happy as much as i can ; ) other then that i love cookingggg and inviting my mates over for a big feed, have lots of laughs and drink adult drinks haha i'm focused, passionate, trustworthy..
che'nelle downfalls:
yo i can get lazy and procrastinate.. for real and i cuss too much damn it! and sometimes i can be too soft and let peeps walk all over me.. lol .. n get stupid down moments like every other human being. haha sigh.... nobody's perfect man... ;)
WHAT ELSE...i trust in the lord (yup ; ) ) i'm spiritual and love to have a good balance in life. i surround myself with positive people.. friends and family that'll slap me if i ever go left and become something i'm not ; ) i love a challenge... cos i always underestimate myself and then suprise myself when i conquer the challenge.. lol if u know wat i mean..
on the real i am more of a "give the person the benefit of the doubt" type but i sometimes have the whole " he/she is guilty until proven innocent" thing happenin.. it really depends.. i forgive easily but don't forget very easily.. depends once again how deep the situation is. BUT i don't hold grudges and definitely don't take things hard in heart. ; ) ain't healthy ; )
i speak 2 other languages bahasa malaysia and mandarin.. well enough to communicate anyways haha apa kabar semua, terima kasih banyak-banyak untuk mereka punya support! translation.. how u doin everyone, thanks for all ur support ; ) i really appreciate it!! (malaysians don't laugh, especially the west malaysians hahaa i'm tryin to keep up ok hahahah)
enough info? err yea hahaha sometimes a professional soundin bio don't show much of the artists true character u know? lol muahs!!! love ya's!
P.S TO ALL THE COMMENTERS ON MY PAGE, GOD I LOVE U GUYS.. JUS KNOW THAT I APPRECIATE THE TIME U TAKE OUT TO EXPRESS HOW U FEEL BOUT MY MUSIC AND ALL THE WONDERFUL COMPLIMENTS! IM TRYIN TO GET BACK TO AS MANY OF U AS I CAN.. BUT PLEASE FORGIVE ME IF I DON'T, THAT'S WHEN U KNOW IM TOURIN ETC LOL .. BUT I DO CHERISH EACH AND EVERY SINGLE COMMENT! I SWEAR!! SOOO THANK YOU!!!!!!! XOX