Kenya Eugene: Breaking Into Song

By Jody Rathgeb

      Breaking into the music business is always tough, but Kenya Eugene of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, has several small advantages working for her:

• She’s seasoned. Kenya has been singing in public since she was 4 years old and has performed for charity events, fundraisers, governors and Tempo Turns One, an MTV-like Caribbean event.
• She’s good. Her YouTube video of “My Joy” has received such favorable comments that people are already referring to her as an R&B diva.
• She’s beautiful. Kenya began doing runway modeling in 2005, and in 2007 an interview with her was featured in the fashion magazine Core. She has, however, put modeling on the back burner in order to pursue a musical career.
• She’s determined. When asked for the name of her mentor or hero, Kenya quickly names her mother, Rosalie Eugene, explaining that what she admires is her mother’s strength, patience and endurance. It’s likely the daughter will have the same persistence.

      Recently, the singer has taken steps to move beyond local acclaim to take a shot at the big time. She recently took on a manager, Samuel Joseph, who is aggressively pursing publicity, and is at work on an album, as yet unnamed, to come out this fall. She is experimenting with pushing beyond her rhythm-and-blues genre into pop, writing her own songs and emphasizing that certain mixture of slick production, ability and island background that will make her sound unique.

      “I want to be able to make music that will last. I’m still looking for acceptance and to be recognized worldwide,” she says. “I’ll be persistent.”

      Kenya believes that her birth and upbringing in St. Croix give her “a different flavor when it comes to music.” She notes that while singing, she can slyly throw in some reggae or a bit of her island accent, if the timing is appropriate, but says that most people listening to her without knowing anything about her might have a hard time identifying her as an island girl.

      “I wouldn’t say I’d had my ‘big break’ as of yet,” she says. Island people, she believes, have an extra hurdle in finding success because exposure is not as extensive and distance “doesn’t give you the same access in the industry.”

      However, the challenges aren’t discouraging her. “Life is full of ups and downs,” she says. “I’ve learned not to sweat the little things. That’s the key in life.”

      Because Kenya is currently focused on completing her album, she has been spending a lot of her time writing. “I’m striving for all the songs on my album to be written by myself,” she says, although she acknowledges that the goal might have to be altered slightly.

      Does Kenya aspire to be the next Beyonce? She laughs. “I want to be the next Kenya Eugene,” she says, mixing together hope, sass, determination and her mother’s note of persistence.

Click the link to contact Kenya and join her IPU fan club : http://www.islandpeopleunited.com/face/kenya

 

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