Jessica Johnson began sparking attention at age 19 with her astounding performance of the National Anthem for the Washington Redskins. After that, she began writing and recording both her own original music and cover material which grabbed the attention of Epic Record's Max Gousse and 2K Sound's Carl Harris. Still in a stage of musical infancy, it was recommended that Jessica begin performing. Soon after, she was noticed at a local audition and quickly signed with the Washington Talent Agency and began performing at venues throughout the DC Metro Area.
Jessica continued performing and recording, but set her focus on school, going onto receive her A.S. in Business Administration. Upon completion of her education, Jessica celebrated with a performance for DC United. Eager to get back on track with her music, Jessica began working as a talent coordinator and vocal coach for the local talent agency. While at the agency Jessica was featured on Fox News and interviewed on WPGC 95.5. It was, in fact, this radio interview that began the snowball of Teena Marie comparisons to come.
In Fall of 2005, Jessica's sultry song "Why?" was placed on the Mercedes Benz MixedTape 08, which was distributed at venus throughout Europe. Her powerful song "Tell Me" was still receiving much local buzz online as everyone wanted to hear "the next Teena Marie."
After being only 1 of 2 US artists on the Mercedes MixedTape, Jessica Johnson's sexy voice and catchy name started becoming known. In 2006 she was contacted through MySpace by Sony composer, Alex Tsisserev of MadLoveMusic, in Vancouver, BC to record a project that would later place her in front of Universal Records, Hollywood Records, RCA Records and J Records. Though the project did not pan out, Jessica's fanbase and recognition was just getting started, as was apparent in her WAMA Nomination for Fan Favorite.
In 2007 Jessica was awarded Honorable Mentions in the 2006 Billboard World Music Songwriting Contest for "Why?" and "Tell Me", did a number of interviews (including PureStyle Magazine and DC Music & Models) and in September, JJ was featured on a Mercedes Benz Podcast Exclusive on iTunes.
....and this is just the beginning.....
What is in store for Jessica's future, no one knows....but with 19,000 fans, over 100,000 streams on myspace and international exposure, I am pretty willing to bet that it is something amazing!
Listen for JJ's podcast exclusive on iTunes now, Mercedes Benz Podcast 56.
To read Jessica's interviews, view her BLOG below.
written by Christine E. Fase
