We have two questions: what is your favorite thing and why is it Michelle Majors?
From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Michelle Majors has always been the kind of person who embraces the spotlight, even at a young age. She fell in love with performing after playing the lead role in the musical, Annie, at her school. It’s what sparked her interest in music. Shortly after that, she was writing her own music.
She grew up listening to iconic artists such as Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and Christina Aguilera. They influenced and inspired the music that she makes. But we asked her if she could perform with any artist, living or not, who would it be? Her response will surprise you.
“I would say Frank Sinatra because I think he is just amazing. He had the voice that is this milky, beautiful voice and he technically, I would say is also an influence on me. So I would’ve loved to have been able to do a song with him.”
An interesting but fitting choice. You can hear influences of Sinatra’s jazzy vocals in her voice. She also responded that if she could work with an artist that is living — it would be Drake. “I think everybody wants to work with Drake. He can do no wrong.”
Believe it or not, she’s not entirely new to the music scene. She’s made music before and had performed live on The Q Show on Fox and even got the opportunity to perform as an opening act for Jhené Aiko. Opening for Aiko is one of her favorite experiences because of the big crowd she got to perform for.
“That was the biggest stage that I’ve performed on, as of yet. It was a really big performance venue and that was amazing because I personally feed off the crowd. So the more people that are there, the more excited I get.”
Most people tend to get nervous on stage, but Michelle Majors is not like most people. As we’ve mentioned before, she truly embraces the spotlight. She was made for it.
Now, the singer-songwriter is starting off fresh with a new brand and a new style of music. When asked to describe her music, she responded “It has that R&B to it but it’s also like a little pop and it’s a little alternative.”
We finally got a taste of her style when she released her debut single, “Favorite Things,” in April.
On this fun, pop track, we get a chance to hear her soulful, sultry voice. The song talks about how we’re not really alone even when we’re by ourselves because we have our favorite things to keep us company. “It’s kinda like self-love,” she says.
Majors explains the concept of the song, how the vibe and feel of it is completely inspired by Lauryn Hill, which is evident in the music and her voice. To go with the vibe, she added a rap in the third verse. But believe it or not, she says the rap was the hardest part of writing the song.
“I never really rapped before and I don’t want people looking at me funny because I don’t really rap. But because we were going for the Lauryn Hill vibe, I was like you know what, I can try to do the Lauryn Hill type rap, which is more chill but she also sings, you know.”
This definitely caught us by surprise because she sounded so natural as a rapper. Who would’ve thought?
She excitedly dives into the recording of “Favorite Things” and let us tell you, this is a fun story. Majors took an unconventional approach when she was making this song.
“So we ended up actually recording this song in he [the producer’s] apartment.”
Wait what?
“He turned his closet into a mini-recording type thing. It’s a small closet. It fits him and like I’m barely in there. Half of me is out of there. There’s still some clothes hanging on the side and he had the mic there and I was like ‘I don’t know about this. Is it gonna sound good?’ He’s like ‘I record all of my stuff in here’ and I’ve heard his stuff so I know it sounds great. I was like okay.”
Not your traditional studio set-up. We talked about her music video and what that experience was like for her. She revealed that the whole video was shot in her apartment. Since the song was about being alone at home, it made sense for the visual to show a home or a living situation.
“We were a little bit nervous about it because I don’t have a huge apartment. I have a pretty small apartment. But somehow we made it work. We used every inch of this apartment. We used my living room, my bedroom, my bathroom, my kitchen. Every crevice that we could use. We filmed so much material and it ended up being perfect. We recorded this in a closet and we filmed it in my apartment.“
Guess you can say that this was truly a homemade project. Michelle Majors truly got creative throughout this whole process and put out something that looks and sounds amazing. This goes on to show you that you don’t need to have a studio or a production set to create a great song and music video.
As a songwriter, her focus is to always be authentically herself in her music.
Everything that she writes and sings about comes from her own life and her own experiences. Nothing is fiction in her music. For her, it’s better that way because it makes the emotions real. The best songs are made when they come from the heart.
Majors brought up two major rappers as part of her songwriting influences — Eminem and J. Cole. She fell in love with their raw storytelling and their ability to rap about anything, no matter how real or dark they get. That is the same exact thing she intends to adapt with her writing.
“I want to be raw, I want to be real and I kinda want people to feel something.”
So far, we’re getting exactly that. “Favorite Things” is a very impressive showing from the rising artist who has a promising future. The question now is: what’s next for Michelle Majors?
“More new music, more performances and just more big things in general to come,” she says. “I’m looking at already putting out another record. I’m working on putting the final touches on it right now so that I can shoot a music video and I’m hoping June is when I would like to put out my next song for sure.”
If this is true, then June can’t come soon enough.
This is only the start for Michelle Majors. Her energy and spirit is absolutely contagious, even through video. You can tell that she loves every aspect of what she’s doing. She has a lot of stories that she cannot wait to share with the world and we can’t wait either.
FUN FACTS ABOUT MICHELLE MAJORS
- She is fluent in Russian.
- She can play the piano.
- Loves to go Boxing — it’s her stress reliever.
- “Mob Ties” by Drake has been in her rotation…a lot.
- Django Unchained is her number one Quentin Tarantino film.
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thanks for the great interview .. it was very interesting to read. Beautiful song and talented singer❤️