Shena
One Man Woman [album]
“Here
she is: A One Man Woman
who’s
not afraid to shout from the roof-
tops, Shena has an impressive music
cv and can’t
wait to share her glorious
voice with an enthusiastic audience...”
HAVING PROVIDED BACKING VOCALS for Mariah Carey, James Brown and Charlotte
Church, the sultry Shena has moved on to become a star herself and has now released
a debut album full of wonderful soul tracks.
One Man Woman is an appealing collection of "stripped-down soul" that
demonstrates the startling range of Shena's singing voice and her musical capabilities.
With a sexy self-confidence, she has been influenced by such worthy artistes
as Whitney Houston and Lauryn Hill and she is captivating audiences everywhere,
proving herself to be a singer of international appeal.
The title track of Shena's album, One Man Woman, is a racy, glitzy journey
into the psyche of Shena, who puts on a good show at every turn. It's A Mystery
is also beautifully sung and has the most delightful and interesting musical
accompaniment that is full of surprises. The undulating melody and soaring notes
of Stay A While have their own attractive charm and there is terrific
voice control on Where Can I Hide?
Shena also injects a good dose of nostalgia with Nasty Little Rumour,
is icily determined as she sings Time To Move On and offers more proof
of her talent with the upbeat Why U Wanna Man Like That? with its profound
message.
It seems that Shena is equally at home with a change of scene, being dreamily
romantic and positive while singing Where Did It All Go Right? Her husky
tones as she sings Don't Get Me Wrong could melt a man's heart and the
sweeping musical notes and low beat of the brilliant I'll Never Love This
Way Again is a great way to end.
Making her mark on the music scene, Shena sang on Michael Gray's 2004 smash
The Weekend, and performed the track live to the nation on Top Of
The Pops. Having always been passionate about music, Shena was greatly influenced
by the baritone voice of her Grenadian father when she was young, describing
him as a "Calypso Nat King Cole".
Her talent was recognised at an early age and Shena's schoolteachers paid for
her to have professional singing lessons after school to improve her chances
of fulfilling the dream of a career in music.
However, her school life had its downside. While studying for her A-Levels,
she was given a disappointing reception from her new music class teacher —
she was exposed to her first experience of cynicism and found herself being
forced to deal with prejudice.
Branded as someone who "would only ever become a secretary", Shena turned the
negative into positive motivation and set out to prove how wrong he was.
Winning an unconditional place at The Royal Academy Of Music with a rendition
of an aria from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, she reinforced her faith in
herself. While there she studied classically, but loved commercial music too.
Once she had graduated, she got her first big break working with Michael Ball
and went on to work with respected artistes such as Luther Vandross, Girl's
Aloud, Sugababes, Angie Stone, Chaka Khan, Lesley Garrett, Belinda Carlisle
and Kelly La Roc.
Performing on BBC's Songs of Praise at the tender age of 21, Shena sang
Don't Cry For Me in a tribute to the tragic loss of murdered teenager
Stephen Lawrence. The BBC was inundated with messages from the British public
demanding to know who this amazing young performer was, and expressing their
interest in Shena releasing the track.
With six Top Twenty dance hits under her belt, Shena's natural progression was
for her to release her own material — having "paid her dues" as a backing
vocalist. She is a talented writer and has written for Javine and Lemar —
Eternal wanted one of her tracks but she wisely decided to keep it for herself!
Shena can currently also be heard taking the lead vocal on the hit Watch
Out by Alex Gaudino, which is currently a favourite on Radio 1, Kiss FM
and London's Capital Radio. She has been performing around the UK during July
and August in Sunderland, Windsor and the Café de Paris, London and will appear
at Liquid in Basildon on 26 September (2008).
• There's only one woman to watch out for
this summer: Shena with her new album, One Man Woman, released 1 September,
2008.
Tracklisting
1 One Man Woman | 2 Where Can I Hide? | 3 Nasty Little Rumour
| 4 It's A Mystery |
5 Stay A While | 6 Everything You Need | 7 Time To Move On
| 8 Treat Me Like Your
Baby | 9 Why U Wanna Man Like That? | 10 Where Did It All Go Right?
| 11 Don't Get Me Wrong | 12 I'll Never Love This Way Again
Check out shena.co.uk and myspace.com/shenawinchester.
"Shena, the UK's favourite diva" — Heat
"Shena has an impressive music cv and can't wait to share her glorious voice
with an enthusiastic audience" — MotorBar
