We Speak Music

Dondria Is Back And With A New Perspective!

Published

3 years ago

January 10, 2023

For R&B singer/songwriter and artist, Dondria, the last two years have been a productive season of metamorphosis and reinvention! After going through a healing, explorative time, she’s back to her first love, music, and steering her career with a renewed purpose, self-awareness, attitude, and direction. To kick off 2023, she has released a new EP, Perspective, on her newly formed company, Awe Me Entertainment, in partnership with 630 Productions. She pours all her love, joy, trauma, and pain into the eight new songs available on streaming platforms. “Most of the songs on the Perspective EP are very personal to me and have a dual perspective or meaning,” she shares.

A streaming favorite is “Lose Myself,” a song about moving into new seasons and letting go of old relationships, people, and mindsets. In “Lose Myself,” a relationship is ending, and there’s a decision – lose your love or yourself? Dondria shares, “In Lose Myself, I’m talking to my younger self and reminding her of old habits and mindsets we let go of to bloom. I will never let a person or situation make me lose myself again!”

Another song, “Let It Be,” featured on Amazon’s sitcom Harlem (starring Meagan Good, Grace Byers, and Jerrie Johnson) was produced by Grammy Award winner Bryan-Michael Cox and co-written by Dondria with her executive producer Josh Bias (630 Productions). “Let It Be” is a love song to her career and music.“I fell in love with music and began creating music before I even understood who I was. I entered the music industry at 19, expecting awards and accolades to come just because of my talent. I loved music, but I didn’t always get back from it what I thought I would. Reconnecting with God, therapy, & refining my circle/team strengthened my confidence and reignited my love, passion, confidence, and appreciation for music. I’ve grown so much and am ready to reintroduce who I’ve become!”

The Perspective EP opens with “Take You There,” revealing Dondria’s sensual side. “On ‘Take You There, I want to take you to a higher place. Social media celebrates couples’ goals with pictures of expensive vacations, money, cars, and diamond rings. None of those things matter. Instead, relationships should be centered around unconditional love and simple things that bring joy, peace, and happiness!” So light the candles, set the mood, and let Dondria take you there!

There are two duets on Perspective: ‘You & I’ ft Avery Wilson and “What I Need,” featuring Josh Bias. “One of the first songs that Josh and I worked on was ‘You & I.’ We wrote that song before we knew there would be an EP, so it’s crazy that it’s on this project with Avery Wilson.” The second duet on the album is the only song on the EP without a dual perspective or meaning. “What I Need is straightforward. It is what it is. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned over time is to trust my intuition. I know what I need, and if we’re not on the same page, it will not work.”

Dondria has a little fun on the up-tempo “Good Company!” “Josh and I have been friends for years, and he knows I love getting with my girlfriends and having a good time. So, we decided to record a fun song that reveals that side of me! “I’m still blooming and growing into this new version of myself. I’ve kept parts of my personality, like my fun side, away from the public. I’m finally growing into myself, and at this point in my life, I’m not allowing anything less than good vibrations around me! I know my purpose is to share my gift and use it to motivate and inspire people. How they receive it depends on their perspective!”

Dondria has also started writing a book of poetry called In The Dark and will launch a health and wellness podcast in Spring 2023 called Detox With Dondria. “I’m a health, wellness, and mental health advocate, and my podcast, ‘Detox With Dondria,’ will help ambitious women and professionals detox from thoughts, habits, and expectations that no longer serve us, so we can create space for things and people who do.”

About Dondria

Dondria’s career started in 2007. With a $15 webcam, a voice touched by God. A candid rendition of Ciara’s “Promise,” Dondria, aka Lil Phatfffat (her name on YouTube), captured the audience of millions, including the ear of super producer Jermaine Dupri. His DM changed the young Dallas native’s life forever! At just 20 years old, Dondria signed a one-of-a-kind deal with So So Def Records and, under Dupri’s mentorship and management, released her debut album, Dondria vs. Phatfffat, in August 2010. The album contained 11 timeless tracks, with songs written and produced by Dupri and veteran songwriter/producer Bryan Michael Cox including her first Billboard charting single, “You’re The One.” Dondria was the opening act on the “Passion, Pain, and Pleasure Tour” headlined by Trey Songz and Monica.

She appeared and performed in several productions, including National Geographic’s GENIUS: Aretha Franklin biopic (2021), BET +’s “First Wives Club” (season 3), headlined the 2021 Taste Of Soul Festival, and toured with her friend, Jade Novah, on her “Moon In Pisces Tour.” In 2022, she also performed in a tribute to Keri Hilson for Black Music Honors and received the Boss Babe’s Trailblazer Award.

Follow Dondria:

www.dondrianicole.com

www.twitter.com/dondria / www.instagram.com/dondrianicole

www.facebook.com/officialdondria / www.soundcloud.com/dondria

We Speak Music

Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2026

Don Reed

Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.

‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.

The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:

Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”

About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.

We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”

The album and full-length film will be released on the 5^th of June on Monotreme Records.

Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.