Sonyae Elise is no newcomer to the Singersroom realm. The Newark, New Jersey bred singer/songwriter recently won Bravo’s songwriting reality competition “Platinum Hit”. While taking a break from winning the show and celebrating her latest accomplishment, Sonyae spoke to Singersroom about leaving school for music, her experience on the show, as well as her latest mixtape, “Lady Rebel Vol.2”. Check out what she shared with us in this short convo:
On leaving school to pursue her dream: “I had to leave everything right where it was at and believe I could make this happen. I left Rutgers, it was my last year of finishing school. I had a 3.7 GPA, I was doing well in school. But my heart was somewhere, my mind was somewhere else. It was driving me crazy so I had to get up and get out. Everything happens for a reason definitely. I am glad I went with my heart.”
Her experience on Bravo’s ‘Platinum Hit’: “My experience was weird at first because They took our cell phones and laptops. We had no communication with the world for 2, 3 months. But it kept us focused. What you saw is what you got. They edited how they wanted to, but it was all genuine stuff. It wasn’t scripted. I was glad to be apart of it because I got to be myself.”
Most learned lesson from being on the show: “Definitely became more aware of my strengths as well as my weaknesses. Prior to coming to the show, I just knew I was born to make music. But to know you have work to do is important when you want to master your craft. I learned that I have really tough skin, which is a good thing in life period. It is also important to take people’s advice.”
On her mixtape Lady Rebel Vol. 2: “Lady Rebel volume 2 is a continuum of volume 1. I am a blend between Beyonce Knowles and Keyshia Cole; I am the best of both worlds. The lady and that rebel is that merge. The artwork is representative of that; I have a bunch of rebellious strong black women who made their stamp on the world featured on it. I have Vonetta McGee, Maya Angelou and Linda Jones who is my favorite singer of all time. I merged all their pictures together and made the artwork for the mixtape. The song titles are actual symbols. The whole tape is symbolic of so many things going on in my life.”
Listen to “Lady Rebel Vol. 2” in our Mix Room here.
—— By: Interview By Cola Janneti
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