New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Critically acclaimed vocal powerhouse
Sarah Potenza is back, and this time she's partnered with Grammy Award-winning artist/producer Dave Audé on a new single, a club-ready, disco cover of Lady A's smash hit, "Need You Now."
Known to millions via appearances on The Voice and America's Got Talent, Potenza has since parlayed that exposure into an impressive career as an accomplished solo artist.
The singer-songwriter's 2021 sophomore album,"Road to Rome" debuted at number one on the iTunes blues charts and received rave reviews from Rolling Stone, Billboard, American Songwriter, and NPR. Potenza, was named amongst one of the top three acts seen at SXSW by Rolling Stone Magazine.
The newly out and proud artist is ready to debut the next significant chapter in her career, one that promises to further unveil her expansive, uplifting talents and larger than life persona to the world.
"
Need You Now" is out now via Audé's label imprint Audacious Records.
Upcoming shows:
SOLO DATES
5/25 ATLANTA
6/12 NASHVILLE
6/29 INDEPENDENCE, MO PRIDE
8/1-4 MILE OF MUSIC FESTIVAL WISCONSIN
Sarah Potenza has always been larger-than-life. From TV performances in front of 12 million viewers to chart-topping album releases, she's built an eclectic, empowered empire with a voice that's as big as her ambition. But she's never sounded bigger than this.
"I'm entering my disco-diva dance era," says the out-and-proud songwriter, who kick-starts a new chapter of her career alongside Grammy-winning producer Dave Audé. "I've always loved glitz and glam. I love drag. I love house music. It's time to make music that lives within that fun, sparkly, shiny world."
Potenza grew up in a small town in America's smallest state, Rhode Island. She was raised by a family of charismatic and boisterous Italian-Americans who were unafraid to speak their mind, and she developed an appreciation for bold, brassy singers who were similarly confident. Influenced by Tina Turner, Bette Midler, Whitney Houston, and Cher, Potenza became a sharp songwriter and show-stopping singer. "For as long as I can remember, I loved divas," she recalls. "And I always knew I was one, too."
When she hit the road in support of critically-acclaimed solo albums like Monster and Road to Rome, Potenza was starting to feel as though her true voice was limited by the confines of more traditional genre and expectation. She'd become a household name thanks to prime-time appearances on shows like The Voice and America's Got Talent. Rolling Stone had even dubbed her "a colossal-voiced singer who merges her old-school influences with a modernistic sound." Fans agreed, sending Road to Rome and its lead single — a cover of Mary Gauthier's "Worthy" — to the top of the iTunes Blues chart.
Potenza wasn't only a blues artist, though. She wasn't just a soul singer, either. "I'd be playing a folk venue in a sequined dress with feathers, and it never really lined up," she remembers. "The frame didn't fit the picture." She was ready for the next major evolution of her career, one that would allow her to truly share her expansive, empowering and celebratory voice and persona.
Enter a new era. Working with Dave Audé, Potenza has unchained her inner disco-ball diva, creating a sound that nods to the dancing queens who came before her — from the
Weather Girls to
Mariah Carey to
Diana Ross — while still thriving in the contemporary world. The collaboration began with a club-friendly remix of Lady A's "Need You Now," propelled by four-on-the-floor percussion and a vocal performance that channels power and pain in equal measure. There's more to come, and the results are stunning. This is music for the dance floor, the bedroom, and all places in between. It's music rooted in melody and movement. It's the sound of an artist's rebirth.
Most importantly, it's music that's bombastic enough to support Potenza's voice and her message. She's spent years calling her own shots, chasing down her own sound, and tirelessly pushing her career forward against all obstacles. She has been proud to inspire fellow women who remain the minority within a male-dominated music industry. She's earned more DIY cred than all your local punks, remains an entrepreneur with serious hustle and is a staunch queer advocate. That sort of trailblazing work requires someone who's loud enough to rise above the noise, and Potenza continues to wield a voice that deserves — no, demands — to be heard.
Maybe you've heard
Sarah before, but you have never heard her, or anyone else sound quite like this.
Sarah Potenza proves it's time to listen up all over again.
Dave Audé is on time and on track. His programming, professionalism and beats all reflect his characteristic ease within the realm of mathematical, electronic music. With more than a dozen years as a veteran producer and DJ, Dave has produced, remixed and listened to countless records and can expertly distinguish classics just by sound, like finding a diamond in the rough.
Perhaps that is why Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Bruno Mars, U2, Sting, Coldplay, Madonna, Katy Perry, Royksopp, Bastille,
Ariana Grande, Zedd, Mark Ronson, Erasure, One Republic, Jennifer Lopez,
Selena Gomez, Chris Brown,
Kelly Clarkson, Beyoncé, LeAnn Rimes, Walker Hayes, Shania Twain, The Killers, Toni Braxton, tATu, Donna Summer, and Korn have trusted him to translate their music into dope on wax.
In 2016, Dave garnered his first GRAMMY Award for his remix of
Mark Ronson feat.
Bruno Mars "Uptown Funk", which also won three more GRAMMY's including Record Of The Year.
Dave has also created an unprecedented 135 #1 Billboard Dance tracks (and counting). His Audacious Records imprint was not only Billboard Magazine's #1 Indie Dance Label for 2015, but it is introducing a myriad of fans to deliciously insane beats that include Audé's 2016 single, Love Me like You Mean It a collaboration w/ #1 country artist Kelsea Ballerini. Dave teamed up again with singer
Andy Bell (of Erasure) for their second release True Original, it reached #1 on the Billboard Dance Chart in March 2016 (their previous single "
Aftermath" went to #1 in 2015).
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What others have said about
Sarah Potenza:
"...hard to ignore, even harder to pin down and as kinetic as a neon orange lightning bolt.- Rolling Stone
"The world needs
Sarah Potenza's voice..."- No Depression
"...a loud and proud exultation from the onetime Voice contestant."- Rolling Stone
"Not only will Potenza's voice move you. Her words, as irreverent as they are at times, may empower you..."- Glide Magazine
"Potenza fuses bluesy vocals and a rock n' roll attitude to create her most powerful sound to date."- Popdust
"Sarah Potenza is a one-of-a-kind singer of our time. Watch for her because this talented singer-songwriter is, without question, going places."-Rock and Blues Muse
"...universal anthems written with inclusivity in mind...brimming with confidence and boasting production that calls to mind the
Mark Ronson vibe of Amy Winehouse's 'Back to Black.'"- Rolling Stone
"A colossal-voiced singer who merges her old-school influences with a modernistic sound."- Top40-Charts
An empowerment anthem can be a beautiful thing, a dramatic transcending of suffering's isolating power. But what's glorious about
Sarah Potenza's blistering, riff-propelled personal anthem "
Monster" is that it doesn't seek to transcend the unpleasantness of her reality - the fact that she's been told countless times in countless ways that the body she inhabits is socially unacceptable. Instead, we hear a woman's fierce determination to stay present, to stare down those who would shame her, to revel in her corporeality.- NPR ("Song We Love")
"Potenza has been rightly compared to commanding divas like Janis Joplin,
Etta James even Aretha Franklin. We concur."- No Depression
"Potenza cut her teeth singing covers in
Chicago blues bars before becoming a fixture in the East Nashville music scene, and she combines a fiery voice and crunchy roots rock with a distinct flair for showmanship."- Garden & Gun
"Whether you're new to Potenza or not, you need to hear this voice which has the power not only to move you. She might heal you too."- Elmore Magazine
