First's Exclusive Interview: Keisha White

“Why do you come here, when you know I've got troubles in enough? Why do you call me, when you know I can't answer the phone?” she asks her forbidden lover in the song. Keisha's powerful vocal delivery cements the words to "The Weakness In Me" deep into the minds of every listener.

'The Weakness In Me' is Keisha's own interpretation of a beautiful love song first recorded by acclaimed British artist, Joan Armatrading in 1975. The song is an emotionally charged ballad based on a young woman's tale on her guilt-ridden relationship with another man.

2006-02-22 13:45:00

By Sarah Williams

She is a rising star in the States, but right now, North London's finest, Keisha White, who has been compared to Ms Dynamite and often called 'the great White hope' is staying in the UK to finish what she started and ride the wave of wonderful praise she's been receiving ever since the release of her debut album, 'Seventeen' early last year.

With a honeyed voice that drips with soul and sounds much more mature than her 19 years, its not surprising that Keisha was signed to Warner Records at an age when most teenagers are worried about their clothes and what makeup to wear. After all she was only 16.

As a girl growing up, singing was always a part of the teenager's life so it would have been unnatural for her to do anything else, especially since her mother was also a singer and a major influence on her daughters chosen career path.

"My mum was the main person who inspired me to do music. I used to go to shows and sing with her. I was about 13 years old when I fully realised I wanted to do it professionally and I think its something that was always in me. It was inevitable that I would do it too."

Like her daughter, Keisha's mother was a professional singer with more than a touch of soul. She sang songs that were in the same vain as 80s soul sensation Chaka Khan and the formidable Aretha Franklin and this, Keisha believes, is definitely where her "soul came from."

After wowing the industry with her ambition and amazing vocal talent, (one particular highlight was on Paul Oakenfold's 'The Harder They Come') Keisha went on to tour with Lemar, Jamelia, The Black Eyed Peas and record a slick genre hopping debut album at the tender age of 17, which resulted in her being nominated for a British Urban Music Award.

She may have set the UK music industry buzzing, but it was our American counterparts who really took her to their hearts.

After spending time in the US, Keisha's collaborated with hip-hopper Cassidy on last years hit 'Don't Care Who Knows.' She co-wrote songs on her debut with one of the hottest writers, Balewa Muhammad, who's responsible for hits by Christian Aguilera and Whitney Houston and she's worked with one of most respected and in demand producers in the industry, Scott Storch (Beyonce, Christian Aguilera, Dr Dre).

The producer extraordinaire even put Janet Jackson's last album on hold to work with her.

"Scott's a great guy," She tells me, like working with the greatest urban producer in the world is something we can all one day be lucky enough to do. "He's one of the most rated producers in the hip-hop urban world and he's a great musician. I think he really liked me because he wanted to work with someone who wasn't really established in Britain. We got on well and got some fantastic records out of it."

It's not surprising that, like many of Britain's talented urban artists, the States seem to have noticed and embraced her soulful talent a hell of a lot quicker than we have, which ultimately is a real shame for us.

Americans, Keisha says, not only love her voice but also who she is and what she's about. She puts this down to that fact that while in a flagging urban music industry, Britain struggles to nurture their artists to their full potential, "Americans get the plot." More details