The New York R&B scene was live and in spirit over the weekend as hundreds of contestants vied for a position on ESSENCE + Pebbles presents the next ‘R&B Star.’ Championed by Grammy nominated singer Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid and Essence, the audition drew R&B hopefuls from several states across the North East.
With a judging panel that included R&B songstress Kelly Price, former 112 band member Q. Parker, producer Bryan-Michael Cox and platinum recording artist Pebbles, R&B hopefuls came out to hear that special idiom: “Come get your star!”
Before contestants were sent off to seal their R&B faith, Estelle provided the group with some encourage words stating, “Make sure this is something you really want because this business is 90 percent work and 10 percent leisure.” She also adds: “Stay true to yourself.”
Singersroom also spoke briefly with Essence.com managing editor Emil Wilbekin on why the media giant partnered with Pebbles for the next ‘R&B Star.’
“We’re leveraging music more. We’ve seen how popular it is on Essence.com when we launched music videos like Trey Songz’s “Yo Side Of The Bed,” so we know our audience loves music,” Wilbekin tells Singersroom. “We have 400,000 people who come to the Essence Music Festival every year so music needs to be more of our platform, it’s what black women care about and there are a lot of great black female R&B stars so it makes sense.”
Visit www.essence.com/rbstar for more details.
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