LOS ANGELES, CA-
“… I LOVE LOVE LOVE when an artist I’m unfamiliar with impresses me with a killer performance. UMI did that to me when I saw her perform for the first time on the Double Happiness stage.
UMI has a vibe. As soon as she started her set with the smoothly infectious “Love Affair”, I was feeling the R&B groove she was establishing. Even when she was singing in Japanese, I couldn’t help but just smile and sway my head back forth to her smoothly rhythmic vocals. Even when she covered songs (Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home” and Frank Ocean’s “Self Control), she put her own reimagined spin on them to make them her own.
What I particularly loved was the passion that she seemed to put into her vocal delivery. Her buttery vocals notwithstanding, there was just an energy that she injected into each song that she sang. The way she put her body into every note emphasized the feelings that she wanted her listeners to feel with her.
As an aside, her performance of “Lullaby” had me feeling some Jill Scott-levels of emotions, and that ain’t nothing. I think I found a new R&B favorite… and UMI is her name …”
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