The path from TV talent show winner to recording star can be a fraught one, but Tessanne Chin won’t let it rattle her.
“I look at people like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood; it was not an overnight thing,” she told the Star at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Toronto, where she received a Luminary Award at the weekend University of the West Indies benefit gala.
“I am not going to take on that pressure of, ‘Oh, is she going to be the one?’ If I can wake up and do what I’m doing and be happy, put food on my table and make you happy by doing it, that’s success to me. I’m not going to measure it in just sales. I can’t.”
Since winning Season 5 of NBC’s The Voice in December, Chin has focused most of her attention on her new album, tentatively scheduled for a May 27 release via Universal Republic Records.
Six seasons in (Season 6 is airing now on NBC and CTV Two), The Voice has yet to produce a star of the magnitude of Clarkson or Underwood, both contestants on Fox’sAmerican Idol.
Three of the first four Idol winners, Clarkson (2002), Fantasia (2004) and Underwood (2005), have combined for more than 30 million in album sales and 10 Grammys since appearing on the talent show.
Four other winners (Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, Scotty McCreery and Phillip Phillips) have had their debut albums go platinum and Sparks has earned a Grammy nomination.
Among Voice winners, Season 3 victor Cassadee Pope found the most success, with her 2013 single “Wasting All These Tears” certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in mid-March.
Voice champs have generally had modest album sales. Pope’s debut, Frame by Frame, scored more than 168,000 sales, according to Nielsen Soundscan, while Season 4 winner Danielle Bradbery’s self-titled album sold more than 126,000 copies. Season 1 winner Javier Colon sold around 50,000 copies of his post-Voice debut while Season 2 champ Jermaine Paul has yet to release an album.
Chin, 29, said she’s taking her time with her record.
“Of course, there’s momentum and we want to capitalize on it, but I’m not about to rush this and give my fans and people that have waited so long just something that I’ve thrown together. I want to give them something that’s me,” she said.
It features production by Grammy-winning songwriter Diane Warren; Toby Gad, who’s worked with Beyoncé; R&B duo Rock City, who’ve written for Rihanna; Claude Kelly (Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson) and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, who produced Chin’s post-Voice single, “Tumbling Down.”
Chin says the album will have “an island swag,” including reggae elements, and a variety that reflects her personality.
In her native Jamaica, Chin was one of many singers, including Alaine Laughton, Romain Virgo and Tarrus Riley, who are well-respected but play second fiddle to dancehall artists in popularity.
Chin’s most popular song in Jamaica, the reggae-inflected “Hideaway,” was the only pre-Voice single played regularly on local radio. Her independently released album In Between Words went largely unnoticed in 2010.
“I’m not bitter. At the end of the day, they have to provide for what the demand is,” Chin said. “Dancehall is king, there’s not a lot of room for singers there. I can work my butt off and create an album that’s wonderful, but if it’s never played and never given the outlet it won’t succeed. It’s a rhythm-based country. No one is doing original stuff anymore and I think that hurts us.”
Chin hopes performers of all types will get equal airplay in Jamaica and be taken seriously.
“I’m seeing how people react to the legends we take for granted sometimes: Toots Hibbert, Jimmy Cliff, Third World, Beres Hammond,” she said. “People camp out and sleep in tents to listen to our people, so we should realize what we have.”
Chin wants to make music that not only connects to people now but long after she passes.
“A great song is one that is around even when I’m not,” she said. “I can put in Bob Marley’s music now and it’s still relevant. I want to make the music that people remember and it doesn’t need a trend, it doesn’t need to be constantly hyped. There’s no time period for it. That’s the type of music I want to make.”
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