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Shenseea Doesn’t Want To Be The Next Rihanna

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shenseea
Shenseea

There has been a prolonged discourse about whether Dancehall star Shenseea will be able to fill the shoes of Bajan superstar Rihanna.  The Good Comfort singer, who has always proclaimed her love for RiRi, has weighed in on the recent chatter, revealing that she is content with maximizing her own individual star quality.

“I feel like even up until now people are saying I should be the next Rihanna, or they see me as the next Rihanna. I love Rihanna. Rihanna is my queen, my Caribbean queen. But, I feel like she has traits that I don’t have, and I have traits that she don’t have. She has inspired me, but I feel like I wanna be the best version of myself, because I am special in my own way,” she said during an interview with MTV.

“And I wanna tell people, ‘Don’t be the next Shenseea.’ You can be so much more special in your own way. Exercise your passion, and exercise your own different personality. You feel me? And just be you,” the fast-rising 25-year-old added.

A Jamaica Observer editorial titled “Is Shenseea the next Caribbean Rihanna?” published last month, once again raised the question about Shenseea’s ‘eligibility’ of being the next Caribbean queen. The main tenets discussed were her net worth, versatility, work ethic, and overall potential.

The Blessed singer has been on a roll since she catapulted to notoriety just a few years ago and now boasts one Grammy nomination and is the first female Jamaican singer to hit the Billboard Hot 100 in 17 years after her contributions to Kanye West’s DONDA album.  She has several other international collabs under her belt; the two most recent being the highly controversial Lick single with Megan Thee Stallion and Forever Ballin’ with Yo Gotti.

To add to her extensive catalog, Shenseea has also copped a myriad of endorsement deals during her career, one of which has coincidentally been for Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty. Shenyeng joined a long line of A-listers like Lil Wayne’s daughter Reginae Carter, Megan Thee Stallion, Normani, JoJo and Dreezy on the lingerie line-up.

shenseea
Shenseea

Following the release of Lick, many naysayers were concerned at her attempt to elude the Dancehall genre and suggested that it might not be in her best interest.

However, Shenseea, whose given name is Chinsea Lee, counteracted the criticisms, by stating that experimenting with other genres is her recipe to achieving superstardom and promoting brand Jamaica in a different light.

“I’ve been a rebel, and now that they’re trying to put me down in a box to be like, ‘Yo, we’ve known you for this big Dancehall representative. We want you to stay in dancehall.’ That makes me, even more, don’t want to do it…I wanna bring it to a different level where normally back in the days people listen our songs and they like it, but they can’t understand it. And if they could, it would’ve gone so much further,” she said.

“And that is what I’m trying to do for my culture and for myself, while still doing what I’ve always wanted which is to become a pop star.”

Shenseea first made waves in 2016, with the release of her debut single, Jiggle Jiggle. Then came her breakout hit Loodi, a 2017 collaboration with Dancehall icon Vybz Kartel.  Her debut album Alpha is set for release on March 11, and by all indications, the Run Run singer  is pleased with the finished product, which she described as “perfect.”

On a deeper note, she revealed that many of her tracks are aimed at women’s empowerment.

“I write about so many things that I know that can help women in general too, you know? But one is to just be independent. When you be independent, it’s like you can really do anything you wanna do. You don’t even understand it. Nobody can hold you back. Nobody can use anything against you because you have that power. When you are independent, it gives you power.”