SPOTLIGHT: Patrice Peris

It seems like Boston has no end to their line of poptastic-potential talents. First JoJo, then Jada, then Matt Mariner, and now, Patrice Peris.

At first glance, she looks like a in-her-20's version of Paula DeAnda. And while their music could be dubbed similar in sound, Patrice has accomplished enough on her own as an independent artist to surely gain her the approval of the other Ms. P.

Patrice was born and raised in Massachusetts, and is a product of the dynamic Bristol Entertainment Group (not unlike the aforementioned Mariner and Universal Motown pop group, Jada). In her bio, she is listed as a mixture of Christina Aguilera, Fergie, Rihanna and Alicia Keys. Big shoes to fill, to be certain, but Peris has a kind of natural finesse to her performance that suggests she is well on her way to becoming a pop diva that needs no last name to be recognized.

Her resume reinforces her talent, and is mindboggling in stature. She's performed at the Winter Special Olympics (twice), has opened for Jada during their college tour, and sang the National Anthem for the Boston Bruins. But that's just a sampling of what girlfriend has done, sans record deal.

Her music style is familiar, but still unique enough to be interesting. She is helping bring back big-voiced pop to the mainstream, and her vocal chops brim with exciting potential not unlike Alicia Keys back in the day. In fact, Patrice's big R&ballad, "The Way You Love Me" echos with a "Fallen" kind of nostalgia, and is by far her strongest track in my opinion. "Show Me What You Got" is a dance floor stomper complete with breathy vocoded vocals, fuzzy synth and handclappy beats, and holds up on a its own in a time when every dancefloor hit seems to be produced by Red One or Polow Da Don.

I also love that depite it being the "cool thing" to be a writhing sex object, the focus is more put on Patrice's voice, rather than her obvious sex appeal. Her committment to performing at charity functions also reinforces what a great role model she already is.

She has a six-track EP available for release on CDBaby which includes the songs I spoke of above, and is currently prepping a brand new euro-poppy house single release called "Matter of Time" with Tony Carbone. It's an exciting time in music if pop acts can put out such great material on their own without the magic touch of a record label. And if Ms. Peris keeps going at this speed, she'll be a proper popstar by...let's see...yesterday. :)