Rodney Jerkins Launches Rhona


Rodney Jerkins, favoured producer of Whitney Houston, Jennifer Lopez, Destiny's Child, Brandy and The Spice Girls spoke exclusively today to worldpop about his new signing, Rhona, who he's decided to launch to the world from the UK.

Rhona Bennett is a 20-year-old Chicago native and has just ended a very successful debut European promotional trip with her mentor in which she wowed a crowd of music executives in London earlier this week.

Rhona, who signed to Jerkins' Darkchild Records in 1999, has spent the last several years honing her image and she has already drawn favourable vocal comparisons to Whitney Houston with the added looks of supermodel Tyra Banks.

But why has it taken so long for Rhona to release her material? 'Ask Sony, don't ask me!' laughs Jerkins. 'The LP was ready in May 2000 but when you have an artist this big you can't do the usual two to three months to put stuff out. I thought she was a star then and she's even more of a star now. She's not a wannabe, she's a gonna be.'

'She's the most important project I've worked on,' Jerkins says. He adds that her debut LP will feature no big name duets. 'I'm focussing on her selling eight to 10 million records on the first LP and 20 million on the second we're gonna get it.'

Rhona, a former star of the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club, which spawned such names such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, is good friends with 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez.

'There's a big buzz about her now,' he continues. 'I was just working with 'N Sync last week, with Justin and JC and they were talking about Rhona. They know her from the Mickey Mouse Club and they were like, 'Damn, another Mickey Mouse act coming through!' And they were talking about how incredible she is, so to hear about her from them is just so amazing.'

Rhona's single Satisfied is released in mid-May with the self-titled LP, Rhona scheduled for release this summer.


Worldpop.com 9 March 2001


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