Sosha Oshaye

At the dawn of a new R&B renaissance, Sosha Oshaye stands poised to make a major impact. Without question, Oshaye is a soulful vocalist and studied songwriter rooted in the gospel, R&B, soul, and blues of the past, but grounded in the post-hip-hop urban world of today. Sosha Oshaye presents a well-formed vocal style with hip-hop savvy and sweet sensuality. She is a mature R&B vocalist who excels most with slower, lovelorn but honest material but more than ably delivers upbeat dance numbers and is versatile enough to pack plenty of punch with anthems of pride and self-empowerment.

Sosha Oshaye was born Sonya Oshaye Anders and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Oshaye (whose middle name loosely means "brightest star" -- itself a tribute to her mother who named her) was greatly influenced as a child by Gospel and soul greats like Andre Crouch, Walter Hawkins, Tina Turner, Prince, Chaka Khan, George Clinton, as well as the unmistakable choir music of the church. To this day, Sosha Oshaye views this music as her foundation. In interviews, she often recalls how her mother and father use to play records from these artists as her Saturday morning “clean-up music.” Other music influences include Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Chaka Khan, Earth Wind & Fire, Kirk Franklin, and Dorinda Clark-Cole.

Involvement in the fertile Kansas City urban music scene led to the formation of an artist's collective called Unit1, a premier soul group in the region; distinguished by Sosha Oshaye’s dynamic vocals. The group’s founder, producer and musician Reggie Robinson, pushed her to sing various song styles and listen to different genres of music – a move that further distinguished her skills. Sosha Oshaye began singing with Unit 1 in 2007 but left to form her own identity and her own group. She became widely noted for her performances with the new all-female act, Soul’s Poem, which featured a childhood best friend and her younger sister. It did not take long at all for the group to start performing regularly.

Oshaye and her band quickly built a hot reputation in the Kansas City area at local clubs. Soul’s Poem received its first break at Harper’s Restaurant in the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District in Kansas City, Missouri. Other doors soon swung open including at the famed “Blue Room” which catalyzed the group to the stage of The Gem Theater (the so-called “Apollo Theater of the Heartland”), which has featured musical luminaries such as Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Patti Austin, Diana Krall and Nancy Wilson to name but a distinguished few.

A rapidly growing base of fans kept pressing Sosha about establishing herself as a solo artist with a solo record. So Oshaye released a single, “Haters,” that received radio airplay and a good response. This prompted Oshaye to seek a deal with major recording companies. Subsequently, Oshaye cut the highly acclaimed, “Heavy on My Mind.” This hard-hitting debut album is rich with textured songs, hooks, and impressively mature lyrics, considering the artist had only been writing songs for about five years. Heavy features energized, excellently engineered sounds, sometimes fusing R&B, hip-hop, urban, jazz, and funk in the same pot. Work on the first project stretched nearly two years, but Oshaye’s relentless pursuit of personal excellence and musical integrity yielded very pleasing results: as successful a graft of classic soul and modern hip-hop-style productions yet attempted.

In May of 2016, Oshaye released her eagerly anticipated sophomore album “Feels like change”. When asked about her vision for this album Sosha stated, “My music is a message in melody. If you listen to the lyrics, there are messages of love, endurance, life’s trials and even the realities of failure. But, the commonality of each song in the end is HOPE!”

Sosha Oshaye’s music delivers some of the most forward-looking and lyrically-substantive R&B of its time and has spawned a burgeoning movement with its gaining prominence. Sosha Oshaye continues to broaden her performing experience. She continues an active touring schedule, both domestically and internationally. Her resume spans from performing at small intimate events to being featured at large festivals like the Let the Good Times Roll Festival in Shreveport, LA and the Durbin Jazz Festival in South Africa.