Spotlight On: DAWN RICHARD
ABOUT THIS WEEK’S SHERO IN THE SPOTLIGHT:
Dawn Richard grew up in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, the daughter of a professional musician and educator, and a dance teacher, so music and dance was a part of everyday life both at home, and in her community. But it wasn’t until her late teens that she made a life-changing decision to pursue music as a career. Bringing together her talents for dance and music, Dawn auditioned for American Idol, before scoring a spot on the MTV reality show with Diddy aka Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs Making the Band, where the girl group Danity Kane was formed. The success of the band went way beyond the reality show, exceeding everyone’s expectations when they became the first female group in Billboard history to debut their first two albums at the top of the charts. When that chapter closed, Dawn’s story was far from over. She would go on to work with Puff again in the project Dirty Money and the tragically underrated album, Last Train To Paris. When that abruptly ended, she reinvented herself a third time as an independent solo artist in 2013 with a critically hailed trilogy of albums - Goldenheart, Blackheart, and Redemptionheart. Her drive and vision as a boundary-pushing producer, singer, writer, and dancer, has led Dawn Richard to become an uncompromising artist, unlimited by genre or even by medium - she also works with Adult Swim as a creative director, and runs a vegan food truck business. Her new record deal with indie stalwart Merge Records is a statement in itself, and this week on SHEROES Radio, we celebrate the release of Dawn’s triumphant sixth solo album - Second Line: An Electro Revival.
Our playlist features a newly released song by CHVRCHES, an old favorite from Eurythmics, a reggae classic by Marcia Griffiths, and a brand new track from Yola from her newly announced sophomore album Stand For Myself.
SHERO birthdays this week include Lily Allen (Sunday 5/2), the late great Sharon Jones (Tuesday 5/4), and Tammy Wynette (Wednesday 5/5).
And Dori Zori from Radio Milwaukee joins us as this week’s Radio SHERO, and spins a track by Israeli artist, Noga Erez.