ON THE RISE
ATLANTA, GA. — Don’t expect Llace Sarabete to play second fiddle to anyone and she lets everyone know that in her debut single, “No Wife.”
An R&B ballad about a woman who has dedicated her life to a man only to find out that he’s chosen another, but wants to keep seeing her at the same time, Sarabete’s soulful voice and heartfelt lyrics weave a tale that many can understand.
“I was first, you decided to choose otherwise and right now you can’t keep coming to me like I'm going to just continue what we had,” Sarabete said. “I’m not going to be a mistress, I'm not going to be second when I was first. You know how we artists are, we get emotional and we write the best, so I wrote it based on a true story. Now it’s so much more to me than just my story. There are a lot of stories related to it and I hope it draws the masses of people who can relate to it, particularly women.”
“No Wife” is the first single among many that will come out on Sarabete’s new album which is due for release later this year.
Sarabete said she finished the video for the song just a few days ago and can’t wait to see it as a final product.
“I want to make sure I’ve done everything I can with ‘No Wife,’ so we’ll release the video in a few weeks,” Sarabete said. “I definitely want masses of people to listen to it because I really think it has something to say. It reminds me of R&B from back in the day back when Lauren Hill would sing her R&B and she’d talk about her love quests. It’s so relatable that people can really get something from it and it would remind them of genuine R&B.
Sarabete said she began singing as a child of 7 when her music teacher told her she had a great singing voice.
At 14, Sarabete became the lead singer of a band called "The Dance Machine" and began performing in nightclubs.
She would often put on makeup and sneak into nightclubs to open for various artists, sometimes even headlining herself.
Her talent and hard work earned her the opportunity to perform at Atlanta's top venues such as the Atlanta Civic Center, Lakewood Amphitheatre for the Birthday Bash, and Phillips Arena for the Funk Rap Fest.
“I’ve been singing and wanting to be singing ever since I was a kid,” she said. “I grew up around a bunch of professional musicians who made names for themselves eventually over time. I just really enjoy singing and creating, producing, everything.”
“No Wife” has gained the attention of listeners world wide, demonstrating Sarabete’s ability to sing in different styles, including R&B, pop, jazz, soft rock and others.
“I think people will enjoy it,” she said. “People can relate to it. I’ve got a lot of songs I think will help people. I do inspirational writing and songs as well to encourage people. I've got plenty of that, but this song is definitely relatable.
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Pop and soul singer Sharon Watkins is preparing to share her very first album in 2023. Working alongside producer Sam Miller (known for his work with The Hoosiers and One Direction), she is following up with her newest release, The One That Got Away, which arrives on 18 November 2022. The track is a tender acoustic ballad that tells the story of leaving behind a harmful relationship, finding strength, and welcoming a fresh start. With gentle piano arrangements and Sharon’s unmistakable soulful voice, the song captures an intensely emotional journey.
Her earlier singles, Proud and Stranded, have already connected with listeners in a big way, reaching more than 250,000 views on YouTube and 150,000 streams on Spotify. With this momentum building, Music News sat down with Sharon to talk about her music and what comes next.
Hi Sharon How are you?
Doing really well thanks! So excited about all the momentum we’ve had with our first 3 singles, honestly, it has been insane to have had BBC radio interviews, rotations, global press coverage and to have won an international song contest in such a short space of time!!
Tell us about your latest release ‘The One That Got Away’?
Well, it starts out as a real wintery piano ballad, portraying that moment when you suddenly realise that someone you're with is messing you around. Then, with the help of big strings and orchestral percussion, it develops into a powerful "I'm over you" song…. It is really a defiant two-fingers up at the ex that never appreciated you until it was too late. It moves from the turmoil of still having feelings for that person, cutting lose and moving on to triumphant recovery, knowing that you made the right decision.
The music video is visually stunning and the dance is beautiful, talk to us about the filming of this video and the creative decision to use dance to express the meaning of the track.
Thank you, that means a lot! We’re really pleased with the way the video came out. Me and my brother, Sammy J Stopford, who has been my partner in crime on this whole album project, knew very early on that we wanted a contemporary dance that portrayed the turmoil in this song. I also knew I wanted the video to express the mental turmoil you go through after finishing a relationship and the underwater medium just seamed such an ideal metaphor for that. We put out a request for dancers and choreographers on Instragram not thinking we would get much interest. One of our lessons on this project is that you can’t pore the right energy into a project if you don’t love the music and so this was the main pre-requisite for dancers…. “please only contact us if the song inspires you!”…. we couldn’t believe the response!! We ended up watching so many amazing dance videos from such talented people. Our album is about adult life lessons and so we knew we wanted a believable couple, that had a great connection and were old enough to have gone through an adult relationship and breakup. We chose Florivaldo Mossi (Michael Jackson in West End Show “Thriller”) & Ashley Cavell (Star of many shows, including ABBA Fever) as they are both incredible dancers but also fit the storyline so well. I couldn’t believe it when Choreographer, Stewart Arnold (choreographer & dancer to Kate Bush) agreed to work on the project!!
The writing in the song is very personal. Was it emotional pouring these emotions into lyrics?
Honestly, it is like an exorcism. Songwriting is how I process and deal with life’s ups-and-downs and so I would be lost without that outlet. It forces me to really dig deep on my emotions towards things. You can’t write songs about superficial stuff, otherwise it just sounds cliché.
What do you hope people take away from ‘The One That Got Away’?
I feel like it’s the song you need a friend to play you when you have broken up from someone and are feeling injured and unsure. You need someone to tell you that you missed a bullet and one day that ex will look around and realise that they lost something very special. I have had people reach out already and tell me how relatable the message is and that it has helped them… this is the biggest compliment of all!!
Talk to us about your influences as an artist.
I grew up in Manchester surrounded by an incredible 90’s music scene, in a house where my dad played everything from The Beatles to Zappa. I then spent 8 years living in the states, picking up some great American influences like Carole King. I have now made Nottingham my home, which is where I recorded the album and I have honestly really been enjoying the return in popularity of singer-songwriters like Lewis Capaldi and Tom Odell …. So all-in-all a pretty varied range of influcences… making for an eclectic pop album that I hope you all like.
Going back briefly on the video, you collaborated with some great people on the video such as Stewart Arnold who worked closely with Kate Bush and Florivaldo Mossi, noted for being Michael Jackson in Thriller Live. Tell us about your experience working with them.
It's been the stuff of dreams really. I am a massive Kate Bush fan and to work with Stewart was like a dream come true. He and I had some long conversations about our vision for this video and the turmoil I wanted to portray. His ability to translate that into dance is something amazing to watch. I had the honour of watching him choregraph the dancers on the morning of the shoot and it was like watching a master at work, the artistic ideas that he brought to this project were incredible. Flori Mossi and Ashley Cavell are both experienced dancers but seeing the way they clicked together, and their interaction and interpretation of the song just blew me away.
What can we expect from you next?
Well, we have 3 more singles coming ahead of the album launch in 2023, so make sure you follow me on Spotify to keep up with those (Sharon Watkins) and we’re also going to be doing a series of “Live Lounge” performances of our tracks ahead of the album release so follow me on socials @sharonwatkinsofficial to keep an eye out for those.
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