Welp, looks like I made it just in time. Less than a week after seeing Tinashe on her Joyride World Tour, the news came in that she has canceled the remaining dates because the album the tour is supposed to be supporting has yet to be released. I won’t go into any record label mudslinging but I can hardly fault Tinashe for this.
She’s released a few songs from the project and recently had a nice hit with her feature on “All My Friends” (Snakeships ft. Tinashe, Chance the Rapper), which continues to steadily climb the urban charts. What I can say is that I was a fan of hers prior to her signing with a major label and can tell you that her rollouts and promo for herself has proven to be leaps and bounds above her current situation.
Onto some positivity, Tinashe put on a pretty spectacular show. The triple threat delivered the goods at the House of Blues in downtown San Diego. She gained a new level of respect from me after she killed the sensual choreography while hitting all the right notes.
Tinashe’s sultry persona was on full display as she covered a range of songs from her mixtapes/LP as well as showcasing some brand new tracks from the forthcoming (?) Joyride. Starting out with 1-2 punch combo “Ride of Your Life”/”Party Favors,” Tinashe slowed it down with the otherworldly mixtape track, “Dreams Are Real” closely followed by one of her steamy jams called “Vulnerable.”
Tinashe took the stripped down approach one step further with a beautiful, acoustic cover of Janet Jackson’s “That’s the Way Love Goes,” which perfectly lead into her version of “Same Old Love” by Selena Gomez. Still riding the ballad trolley, she introduced a brand new, gorgeous piano tune named “Fires and Flames,”
After the brief “slow jams and dedications” portion of the evening, Tinashe came back out hard and snatched everyone with her party jams “All Hands on Deck” and encore “2 On.” My favorite moment of the evening was definitely seeing her nail one of my faves from her repertoire, the urban thumper “Bet.”
Tinashe is clearly a huge star in the making, and seeing her perform live just solidified that theory for me. It’s been two years since Tinashe released her amazing body of work Aquarius, and #teamTinashe are ready and waiting. If only RCA would get their schtuff together and release it already!
You can find music from Tinashe on several of our Core programs, including Hot R&B and Concrete Beats.
– Submitted by Tristan Bolden, Music Design