Motown the Musical or “the Motown” as I like to call it is chock full of talented musician, singers, dancers, and actors. Each striving to do their own thing. We do 8 shows a week in the show and then we all have the nerve to want more! LOL yes in indeed, we want more. I attended the Birdland show of my girl N’kenge (Mary Wells and also one-third of the Martha & the Vandellas in Motown) this past Sunday and saw her singing her heart out in perfect voice, after the longest week ever! But before that I attended and performed in at Joes’s Pub with my southern sister , Ariana DeBose . Ariana is one-third of ” the Supremes” as Mary Wilson and she recently put together a fab show at Joe’s Pub, this girl works hard! She came into Motown the Musical 6 days after finishing the tour of “Bring It On the Musical”, and dived right into rehearsals, not even a full week break between shows and she’s been going strong! Having been in the lab working on my Howlin’ music recording for Honeywax, writing, perfecting my songs I have been behind the scenes writing songs, making arrangements and completing my next album currently titled “Howlin'”, doing Motown nightly and recording during my days. Ariana asked me to be a part of the show and I said yes! Exciting for people who may know her as the beautiful dancer from “So You Think You Can Dance”because there’s more! She sings, and grooves and belts honey, I was thrilled to hear her range on songs like “4 Women” made famous by Nina Simone. She shared the stage with several of my favorite people including Charl Brown (Motown, Sister Act), and Ariana Grover (Bare, Holler If You Hear Me-Tupac Workshop). That’s all I’ll say for now but check out this video of us singing one of my favorite funk derived songs, giving it a bluesy twist just the way I like things— bluesy and funky!
Ariana DeBose and Saycon Sengbloh