Kenya Grace

Celebrating her smash "Strangers" not only going #1 on the U.S. dance charts but also the U.K. charts, AND making history by being only the second British female solo act to go #1 w an entirely self-written and self-produced track, Kenya Grace shares how the song was born, and if there were a lot of Vs of the song before she released it.

We also get to know Kenya better w #FinkysFirsts!

Find out about:

• what she first wanted to be growing up
• the first song she wrote
• the first dance song that made her fall in love w EDM
• her first tattoo
• the first thing she did when her first video went viral
• the first Halloween costume she dressed in

Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!

Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!


Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!

Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, Kenya, Hey, Hi, I'm good. How about you.
I'd thank you. I'm just happythat you didn't sign in like thirty seconds
before you did, because I wasactually checking my teeth in the video because
I thought I felt like the foodin my teeth and that would have been
an awkward first meeting. By theway, is or anything like it looks

(00:23):
great, you look all right?All right, here we go dance counting
down the biggest dance songs in thecountry. This is America's Dance thirty.

(00:48):
Kenya, Grace, welcome to America'sDance thirty for the first time. It's
great meeting you. Thank you somuch for having me, absolutely and there
is a lot to congratulate you on, so you might just want to back,
get comfortable. Feel free to takea nap if you want to take
a nap. So earlier this yearyou signed your first ever record deal,

(01:10):
which is awesome. Congratulations on that. Thank you. You are on your
world tour right now. Congratulations onthat. Yeah that one is really crazy.
Yeah I bet. And then congratulationson Strangers going number one on not
only the US Dance chart, butit went number one on the UK chart

(01:32):
a few weeks ago. Too,which is amazing. It's honestly like a
dream. I feel like I'm justgoing to wake up at any moment.
It's not none of it's going tohappen. Let's not wake up because it
is an amazing dream. Oh andps, you also made history by being
only these second British female solo actto go number one with an entirely written

(01:57):
and self produced track that is amazing, so crazy, I feel like it's
it's just mental And the only otherperson to do it was Kate Bursch,
which is like wild amazing. Yeah, and obviously the story behind that is
insane because the song was like twentyyears old, which is crazy. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, so we're notgoing to count that one. Congratulations

(02:23):
on all of that. I can'twait to find out how Strangers was born.
But first, since this is thefirst time we're chatting, let's get
to know Kenya Grace a little betterwith Finkey's first Okay, so I always

(02:44):
love finding out the origin story ofartists. Now, you growing up,
you were kind of all over theplace because you played hockey when you were
younger, and then you also startedwriting and singing when you were young as
well. Right, Yeah, Iloved I loved hockey, but I actually
stopped playing hockey because I wanted todo more music. So yeah, yeah,

(03:05):
I stopped playing hockey too. I'mactually Canadian and I stopped playing hockey
to get into radio, so wegot something in common. But then you
also were studying history and English latewhen you got into college, right,
yes, yeah, was music whatyou first wanted to get into when you
were growing up or was hockey orwhat did you actually want to do when

(03:28):
you were growing up? I alwaysloved music. I always like had this
like kind of like like instinct almostthat I kind of knew that I would
always do music as well, likeI wanted to be my career from super
early on. I just loved singingwhen I was a child that I used
to sing constantly. So yeah,definitely not a hockey player. I think
I'm meant for music. What positiondid you play in hockey? I think

(03:51):
I was just play like the wingor like the forward or something. I
don't even know. It was agesago. I think I was a goalie,
and I don't even know if Iwas a good goalie. Yeah,
I know you can tell by mybuild that I belong in goal but we'll
ignore that. Now. You havegot some amazing videos of creating your music.

(04:15):
But do you remember the first songyou ever wrote? I'm sure it
was something very sad. I alwaysused to like go up to my room
when I'd have like an argument withmy family and like go upstairs, like
sing a really sad song on likethe piano. It would have been something
super over the top and like dramatic. Of course, well, you know,
I don't want people to be trickedinto thinking that you're just a drum

(04:40):
and bass artist, because of courseStrangers is a very soulful drum and bassed
song. But you've got house,you've got trancesh you've got down tempo songs.
Do you remember the first dance songthat got you into EDM? I
used to love like, oh,there's so many. I used to love
pendulum, and I used to lovelike a dubstep had like a huge like

(05:04):
movement here in the UK, likewhen I was in school, and I
us that was probably the first timeI heard dance music. And then like
what got me into like writing,I think dance music was probably Flume and
Disclosure and like Kate Trinada, theywere like they really like influenced me a
lot. But yeah, the firstlike dance music I ever heard was like

(05:24):
dubstep, and I loved it somuch and was obsessed. Well, and
it's pretty crazy because I mean dubstepand drum and bass are along the same
lines, so that's cool. Yeah, I was always obsessed with like drops.
I love that build up and thenthe big drop. I just I've
always loved that, and then that'slike the cool thing. Same now I

(05:45):
saw I saw it from a bunchof your posts on Instagram that you've got
a lot of inc which I doas well. Do you remember the first
tattoo you got? Yes, itis this middle bit of this tattoo here,
And I got that when I wasway too young. I think I
was like fifteen or something. Howdid you get in when you were fifteen?

(06:06):
We like photoshopped and our ID onour phones and then took it to
like the They actually believed that wasjust crazy, bro. Yeah, I
was definitely way too young. Thatis incredible. I've heard of people obviously
sneaking into clubs with a fake ID. I don't think I've ever heard of
somebody getting a tattoo with a fakeID. I just really want it,

(06:29):
like I want it super early on, so it has to be done well.
You have got multiple videos on TikTokthat have gone over a million views.

(06:49):
Do you remember the first thing youdid when your first video went viral?
I know, the first video thatever went past a million views on
TikTok or Instagram was a song thatI wrote called after Party Lover. That's
the first one I put like avideo of me playing it on the machine
and singing it in my room,and that's the first one that like got

(07:12):
over a million views. I think, So take us through the process,
because I've come close. One ofmy videos hit a thousand views now I'm
joking, take us through. Takeus through the process though, of what
it's like when a video does goviral, Like the emotions and everything that
you go through with it. It'scrazy, Like I feel like you never

(07:34):
really expect it. Always for me, it's like the ones that I don't
think people were like that, Ijust post and I'm like, I barely
spend any time on this one,Like I didn't really think that I like
put too much thought into it orwhatever, and then I like leave my
phone for the night, wake upin the morning and I'm like, damn,
that's like quite a few us now, like it's crazy, but I'm

(07:56):
always like so shocked, so likeI'm always like, wow, people actually
like this. It's crazy. It'sso funny that you put it that way,
because I remember chatting with bb Rexaabout that and how frustrating it is
because all of the stuff that weput a lot of work into doesn't do
anything, and then you post stuffthat doesn't. It's so annoying that always

(08:18):
happens. I literally don't understand.I'm happy it happens to other people,
to be honest, this is likegreat for my mind. Yeah, absolutely,
it's happening to everybody else, andit's so frustrating because somebody who prides
themselves in putting a lot of workinto making sure that something is good,
when it's the stuff that doesn't,it's like, oh come on. Literally

(08:41):
yeah. Well, finally, inHonor of Strangers Going Number one, which
is a song pretty much about gettingghosted after hooking up with somebody, we
are having this chat the day beforeHalloween. Do you remember your first Halloween
costume? Though? But it wouldhave been definitely something basic because I know

(09:03):
I need to put more effort indefinitely in the future, but I would
probably been like a cat or likea witch. If it was a cat,
I've got no problem with that becauseI'm a proud cat dad, so
I'm good with that. Shout outTucker who watches all of my chats.

(09:24):
Let's talk about your number one smashStrangers. How was this song born?
So I wrote it in my roomlike everything else, And I remember like
thinking before I wrote this song thatI wanted to create something that's like more
ethereal sounding, like with the productionat the vocal arrangement and stuff. So

(09:46):
I really had that in mind becauseI wanted like it to be like quite
a floaty liquid song because I reallylove liquid rum and bass. When it's
very ethereal and like very like softsounding, I really love that. So
that's what I had in mind whenI started out, And then I always
wanted to write lyrically like about thattopic because it's just something that like I've

(10:07):
always noticed and like you know,so many people have said it and like
some of my friends and it's comesto me. But like it does feel
like sometimes when you're like single andin the dating scene, like how it's
kind of brutal that people move onfast. Like it's like, really,
it's really quick. But yeah,so yeah, I just wanted to wanted

(10:28):
to write that theme. Well,it's gone number one in multiple countries.
It's got god knows how many millionsof streams. Now was that surprising to
you? Again, going back tocontent, were you shocked that? Did
you put a lot of work intoit? No? And it's the shortest,

(10:48):
Like it was the shortest video thatI've ever posted. Like it was
literally like like the chorus only andlike I filmed it really fast, and
I I didn't expect it at allto this habit. I was like,
Sey, that is so incredible.Well, I'm not sure if your process

(11:09):
when you make songs, but Ilove finding out how many different vis there
are of songs from when you startworking on it to when you finally put
it out. Were there are alot of different VI's of Strangers. That
is a lot of different versions.I rewrote a lot of like the verses
and after after the clip like gotout into the world, I like spent

(11:33):
like time like writing the rest ofthe song. So there's a lot of
different versions we tried. Yeah,a lot of different mixes and yeah It's
Yeah. I'm happy its final formis out. Gotcha. Well, congratulations
on the massive success on Strangers.Congratulations on the world tour. Ken you,

(11:54):
Grace. It is so awesome finallymeeting you. Thank you for your
time with us on America's Dance thirty. Thank you so much for having me.
America's Dance Erny counting down the biggestdance songs in the country America's Dance thirty