Sophia Bromberg may be a name you’re quickly becoming familiar with. She recently wrapped up Season 21 of NBC’s The Voice (team Ariana).
Sophia Bromberg grew up in a musical family, learning how to play piano, guitar, and started singing at the age of 5. She says “music cultivates an environment of creative and artistic expression, enabling me to embrace my identity in a unique way. Whenever I play, I experience an indescribable feeling of joy and peace that I can’t find in any other activity”.
Courtesy of soultracks.com
(June 3, 2022) Marin County, California singer Sophia Bromberg was introduced to the world in her auspicious debut on NBC’s The Voice, where she wowed the judges and audience with her versatile skills that belied her young age (16 at the time).
Her newfound fans have been anxiously awaiting her musical recording career, and it is now here in the form of her own composition, “Lately,” an incredibly tasty midtempo that should appeal to both classic R&B heads and younger fans. We know that we were immediately hooked by that voice she brings to the song.
We’re proud to present ”Lately” as our newest First Listen. Check it out below and tell us what you think of this talented new singer.
Being noticed by Billboard’s Editorial Director with only one song uploaded on Soundcloud isn’t an everyday thing for an independent artist, but when you combine a distinctly ethereal and powerful voice with visual lyrics that instantly pull you in — it makes perfect sense. Hailing from Washington, D.C., Naïmah radiates a seemingly effortless approach to her melodies and storytelling which sit in a soundscape of organic and electronic arrangements. Her style pays homage to a long legacy of Black musicians in country, rock, soul, and pop music. Fittingly, she was featured on Beats by Dr. Dre’s “Flowers for Black Women” on Apple Music alongside powerhouse artists like Nina Simone, Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill, and Solange. Her music has also been featured in shows like the CW’s “Batwoman” and “Kung Fu”, and on numerous Spotify editorial playlists showcasing pop, indie, and emerging music around the world.
In 2016 she was a winner in the International Songwriting Competition and in 2022 she made the semi-finals. Among a long track record of performances, she has performed for Stevie Wonder and was an invited guest to the White House during President Obama’s administration.
Her influences range from the classic (Sam Cooke, Fleetwood Mac, Elliott Smith) to the current (Cautious Clay, Japanese Breakfast, Phoebe Bridgers), and her timeless lyrics focus on empowerment, hope, and reflecting on the journey of everyday life.
Aged to perfection New songs from a Good Ole Band Randall Mcgowan/Bass Guitar ,Keys and Vocals with Norman Collins on Guitars and Vocals are continuing make music;Randall Mcgowan is a session musician.Band Leader.Producer..Songwriter.and Publisher for over four decades,Recording new music has been the focus this year,Norman and Randall have been performing this year at Ravino Winery in Ukiah,California as well as The Atlantis Casino in Reno,Nevada,,
Four New Singles for a new season ;Cascade,Why you Driving This Thing.Highway Call, and Sanctuary ready for the radio.Many Thanks to Stephan Sea.a dear friend for many years Adding .Strings and HornsThat bring a new life to theses songs,Andrea Blair as a friend and artist added so very much with her vocals and whiseling. Joe Lococo on Slide Guitar with Scott Vonheim on drums made the blues a hot ride through a cold dessert.Many thanks to the rouge Chads ,
In the get down & deep south, just outside Atlanta, Georgia (pronounced Jaw-jah) is music that will make you want to get up... so you can go get a drink, sit back down to relax with a bourbon in your hand.
Street writes bitter-sweet music about love, intimacy and just being human. While most of her live acoustic music is steeped in leaves of Americana, jazz, and pop.
In the studio, she is turning back to her original influence of electronic music with an inescapable southern twist. Street's latest music project returns to her original love of electronic music.
Inspired by some of her favorite artists - Massive Attack, Portishead, Zero 7, the XX, and Rhye.
Group: The Hourglass Effect Title: But Anyways Genre(s:) Rock / Country Rock
Similar Artists: Neil Young, ZZ Top, Alabama Shakes
"Cool slice of RnR" - Brainy Wonkus Soundart Radio 102.5 FM - Devon, UK
"This is a good lil' cruncher!" - Stanley Hilborn CKWR-FM 98.5 FM - Waterloo, Canada
"5/5 Excellent will feature on beehivecandy.com" - Mike Beehive Candy Radio / Magazine - UK
"This track could be eight minutes long, adding four more minutes of crazy, dusty, Texas desert guitar and it would only make it that much more appealing. The Hourglass Effect has my attention!" - Greg Nanobot Rock Reviews
“But Anyways” is self written by artist and songwriter Drew Brashear, produced by multi-instrumentalist Dave Hardman and vocalist Erin Fox-Clough. But Anyways is the outcome of a peak covid-time jam session in their efforts to stay creative and push through the negative situation worldwide, which was then arranged and turned into the first track of the self-titled album.
The Hourglass Effect came about from a serendipitous meeting in a parking lot.
Spotting flame-haired singer Erin clutching a guitar heading to a recording studio, songwriter Drew struck up conversation. It just so happened that Dave was her music teacher at the studio, and together, the three bonded over their shared vision for Drew’s songs. As soon as Drew heard Erin sing, he began to write with her passionate, arresting voice in mind.
"Love Me Like You Do" is the third song taken from RIIVER BRUKES' album "Reformed Soul", due for re-release on the 25th of March 2022, via Epictronic.
RIIVER BRUKES is making waves her way. Scottish born Canadian, Riiver Brukes, is a prime example of raw, natural talent. Her unusual gritty voice and soulful style brings a powerful edge to some amazing hook-laden songs, and is clearly influenced by a broad spectrum of genres and artists. Rising through this foundation and with various bands including pop band Cicero (#11 European Dance Charts), Edinburgh’s very own Riiver Brukes releases her first solo album, ‘Reformed Soul’ (co-written and produced by Joe Segreti: Bruno Pelletier, Mooch): An album with massive appeal and great talent ranging from rock to soul, and oozes nothing less than attitude, character, originality and heart of this Scottish Lassie.
The ‘Reformed Soul’ album was #5 on The Music God’s Best of 2021, Top 20 Rock CD’s - alongside greats such as Ray Wilson, John Grant, Steve Hackett, Ann Wilson (Heart) and Alice Cooper, to name but a few.
‘It Ain’t Right’ 3 months in heavy rotation and #1,2 & 3 most requested songs on platforms such as Sweet Sunday Sounds (Banks Radio Australia FM), Hometown Underground (Brews Radio), Untapped Project, Indie Rock Radio (Montreal).
‘Break the Chains’ is also on heavy rotation and frequently requested on Banks Radio Australia FM, Hometown Underground (Brews Radio), Untapped Project, Indie Rock Radio (Montreal)
Other placements include Canedorock.com, Zonenights, Rockomotora TVyRadio, Radio Chaos Caribou, Wolfman Radio UK and Smokeout!.
Rapper Nas has joined a $20 million funding round for Cape Town, South Africa-headquartered Carry1st, which bills itself as “the leading publisher of social games and interactive content in Africa.”
New York City-born Nas – whose QueensBridge Venture Partners last year earned a reported $40 million from a nearly decade-old investment in Coinbase – joined Google as well as Savage X Fenty backer Avenir in funding Carry1st. And Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which has now coordinated with Nas on multiple raises, led the round.
According to a formal release from a16z, four-year-old Carry1st – which has worked on titles including Football Clash, Match League, and SpongeBob Krusty Cook-Off, per its website – serves north of one million users.
“Most notably, Carry1st has aggregated Africa’s disparate payment networks into a modern fintech platform,” the document continues, “ultimately creating a one-stop solution for other game publishers to manage, distribute, and collect payments from end users across 90 different payment methods.”
On this front, Andreessen Horowitz sees “a huge opportunity for a next-generation games platform and social network in Africa,” noting that the average age of the continent’s 1.3 billion residents is 19.
But “few international games target an African audience at launch, and even fewer localize and design for the continent – taking into account regional taste and languages,” a16z notes before acknowledging that Africa’s “highly fragmented” payments space is a barrier to global app and game companies.
Nas’ investment in Carry1st arrives as the broader music industry is looking to establish footholds in emerging markets, and particularly throughout Africa’s 54 countries.
Months after Warner Music South Africa acquired local label Coleske, for instance, the overarching WMG kicked off 2022 by buying a majority stake in African distribution and rights-management company Africori.
Regarding the aforementioned funding rounds that have drawn support from both Nas and Andreessen Horowitz, late November of 2021 also saw the parties (along with The Chainsmokers and Kygo) join a $55 million Series A for music-investment platform Royal.io.
Today, Nas used Royal.io to sell 50 percent of the streaming royalties from two tracks, “Rare” and “Ultra Black.” For the latter song, the 48-year-old priced 500 ownership tokens at $50 apiece (with each offering a 0.0143 percent stake in the work’s streaming royalties), 250 tokens at $250 each (0.0857 percent ownership per token), and 10 tokens at $4,999 a pop (2.1400 percent ownership).
Meanwhile, Nas – who became a co-owner of and equity partner in Escobar Cigars last August – congratulated his former manager, Steve Stoute, on the two $50 million rounds that his UnitedMasters closed last year. Andreessen Horowitz, an existing UnitedMasters investor, led the newer of these raises.
Lastly, in terms of the professional overlap between Nas and a16z, the VC has backed multiple crypto and NFT startups, and Nas declared after cashing in on his Coinbase interest: “Long crypto forever…. in sickness & in health.”
Cookie has been singing since the age of five and honing her skills by singing in chorus and madrigals during her high school career. She also utilized her singing talent by performing at local venues in and throughout the Spring Creek, Warren, and Erie Pennsylvania regions including nursing homes, parades, bar venues and sporting events.
She then expanded her musical experiences while continuing to grow her talent when performing via the Infinity Performing arts cafe of Jamestown New York. Through the program she performed at various NY state venues/festivals (including the Blue Heron music festival) and got the opportunity to sing at the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame as well as participate in a Blues music competition while at the Lafayette Tap Room of Buffalo New York.
Throughout her musical journey she has been an opening act for Hip-hop artist Lil' Scrappy, country artist Aaron Tippin, and the music group Kool and the Gang. In late summer (August) of 2021 she was invited to perform the singing of the National Anthem to open up a Nascar race for the Watkins Glen international racetrack.
Within recent weeks two of her original songs "Rugged Cowboy" and "It is what it is" were ranked number one for local country/acoustic music on the Number One music chart or https://www.numberonemusic.com site.
Cookie Isn't Your Average Cookie
Erie, Pennsylvania Dec. 26th, 2021
Today the new independent artist that goes by the name of Cookie is Number Two on the N1M charts (NumberOne Music charts) for local country music. Her new single "Rugged Cowboy" which was released on August 31st, 2021 has been catching the attention of fans who follow her music on this site. She celebrated it becoming number one on the charts on December 5th for the first time since its release, and also another original of hers "Hurt Soul" slid into the number one spot on December 13th.
While still fairly new to music as a solo artist and singer/songwriter, Cookie (real name Amber Otto previously Amber Cooke), has been singing and performing since the tender age of five. While seeing her creative ability as a hobby upon its starts, she began taking music and what it could do for her more seriously after becoming a vocalist in a blues band at the Infinity Performing Arts Cafe of Jamestown NY. Through Infinity, she was able to perform at several of the venues within the New York state region as well as perform at the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame, and compete in a blues music competion while at the Lafayette Tap Room of Buffalo New York.
Aside from Infinity, her talent was spotted by those watching and listening throughout her various music ventures, giving her opportunities to perform as an opening act for artists such as Lil' Scrappy (Hip-hop artist now on Love and Hip Hop), Aaron Tippin (Country artist), and Kool and the Gang (R&B funk band). She was also selected as one of the top "go to" vocalists within the Erie Pennsylvania area to contact for the singing of the National Anthem. This lead her to sing our country's anthem at two different Monster Jam events and as of this summer (2021) in August was able to share her voice to kick off the "Go Bowling at the Glen NASCAR cup series"weekend event.
Some of Cookie's musical influences were the soulful and sultry sounds of Aretha Franklin, Shania Twain, Tammy Wynette, Janet Jackson, Aaliyah, Johnny Cash and many more. Though more familiar in performing cover songs, she has embraced her own sound and currently has her music available on all music platforms including SoundCloud, Spotify,Youtube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Napster, itunes, Shazam etc.
She stays true to her powerhouse, soulful vocals but combines them with her new found love of playing acoustic guitar and country rooted background that came from several of her family members; closest being her Grandfather. She describes her sound as one where the "country ends and soul begins." She previously shared with a local newspaper that she hopes to one day be an artist that you hear on the radio and states to "Just keep singing," because you never know where it might lead.
