To live your truth and sing your truth, that defines success.Collection: Success
As a black woman, I've always had to work hard to earn my respect as a musician - and as a young woman, too. As a writer, in certain sessions or certain rooms people think, 'Who's kid is this? Who's this little girl?' I've had to prove myself.Collection: Respect
I want women to really feel how honest and vulnerable I am and to understand that they are not alone and that these are all human emotions.Collection: Alone
I'm so thankful that at this point, even if you see my face or know who I am, it doesn't matter, because you already love the music.Collection: Thankful
As a person, I'm just trying to be better than I was yesterday and continue to elevate.
You can't avoid heartbreak, you can't avoid a lot of things. You have to go through them in order to become the person you're going to be.
Sometimes it's all about hype, and I didn't want hype.
Being anonymous, I thought I'd just release the music and see what happens organically.
A lot of women need to know that they don't have to conform, they don't have to take no for an answer.
Good things take time.
Whether you know who I am or not, you don't really know who I am.
The studio is the place for me to really confront my feelings and get it all out. I love being in that space and creating, doing what I love, making art.
Some people, they make these assumptions before they even listen to the music.
I've learned a lot about myself through my music and the way people perceive it, and the goal is for the success not to change me.
I'm half-Filipino and Filipinos love karaoke.
I was almost afraid to speak on the things I've dealt with as a woman.
Giving, making an impact on people is something I definitely got from my mother.
Music was all around me from the time I came into the world.
Black culture, to me, is so important and I identify with young black women.
I'd rather have quality over quantity. It's about perfecting each song and making sure it's what you want to do. And then even with what I share it's all very strategic.
I don't like to rush things.
I'm a perfectionist and I want everything to be amazing every single show.
People are gonna listen to the music whether or not I reveal myself.
I would not be able to sleep at night and I would practice my Grammys speech. That was definitely me.
It's really powerful to have a strong base that genuinely loves the music and plays it over and over again.
Seeing people Tweet my lyrics and really feeling for me, feeling what I'm feeling... in one of my lyrics I sing about 'the watch I just got for you,' and some girl was like, 'Yes! I bought him a watch!' I can be happy because these women feel me.
I really just wanted it to be about the music, and get away from, 'Who is she with?' and 'What is she wearing?'
I want people to feel the emotion, try to relate to the way that I look or want to be like me in the way that I'm living or whatever.
Throughout my teenage years or whatever, I've been so uncomfortable, or I've made mistakes and I've felt like I'm the only one who has done that.
Through the music, you can pretty much tell what I've been through and what I've accepted. And releasing it has made me realize I'm not alone in it, because of the reactions I've been getting.
I don't want people to love my music because of what I look like or who I know or whatever.
I plan on donating a bunch of guitars to different schools around the country. There could be a new Slash out there, there could be a new Lenny Kravitz.
My parents have very different tastes. They exposed me to so many different things. I represent both sides.
My dad had a cover band. They would rehearse in my living room while my mom was pregnant.
The fact that I can travel around the world doing what I love is such a blessing. I've learned that traveling is such an important thing; there's so many beautiful things out there and we get worried about such little things.
I don't know if I have a favorite part of being an artist. I do love being onstage and performing with my band. I also love rehearsing with them and creating the show, that's always a fun part. But there's also nothing like being in the studio and being able to get back to myself and get back to my feelings.
I always feel like we focus too much on image and the flashiness of what it means to be an artist.
I think people often tend to listen to music with their eyes and not their ears, and I just wanted my work to shine, and to be able to convey my message without imagery taking away from that.
I always say that my music is my diary. It's very personal to me.
Sometimes I'll just go on my piano and just start playing what I'm feeling. It all depends on what I'm feeling at the moment.
I was a kid. I would go home and play instruments, and I would be at school on the playground the next day.
Some people want the attention, some people want the spotlight, and that just wasn't it for me.
I wanted it to be about the music, so maintaining that is kind of difficult. But it's something I found made the most sense because it's about the music at the end of the day. That's what I'm most passionate about.
I never really thought of myself as someone who was gifted.
I was like, 'Wow, Tommy Hilfiger wants to work with little old me.' All the dots connected, we had a meeting, and everything started to come together.
I'm all about comfort.
I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing.
Before anybody knew who I was, I was just working on what I love and having fun with it, and I'm sticking with that - because, ultimately, that's what people want to see.
Music is just in me and I didn't even realize it early on that I was going to do music.
I'm so emotional when it comes to even the smallest thing.