Written By Kelly Holm
Rising pop star Yasmeen has known in her soul since childhood that music was all she ever wanted to do, but there were still plenty of hurdles in the way— the first being her nerves, which she set out to best when she was barely school age.
“In the church I grew up in, in Phoenix… I remember just telling myself that it was time to finally conquer my fear of singing in front of people,” she reminisces. “So I asked the pastor to let me sing.”
Needless to say, he said yes, and so have many other audiences throughout the years. That’s not to say, however, that all of Yasmeen’s obstacles were out of the way. Trials such as these are the subject of one of her favorite original tracks, “Made to Win.”
“Sometimes I just wanted to quit, when they take my dream, throw it on a slave ship,” she sings in the first verse, and shares of being pressured to “sell her soul” to the entertainment industry in order to conform to their image of what a young female artist should look like.
“Who you are, and what your heart wants to offer, is timeless and made to win,” she says in summary of the song’s message.
Inspired by soulful pop powerhouses like Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson and Lauryn Hill, as well as her gospel roots, Yasmeen took her act to the City of Angels, recording her first original song at the age of 18. In years since, she’s dropped a handful of singles— including “Half of Me,” which hit 4 million Spotify streams in April— and been promoted by Grammy-winning artist Ne-Yo. “Fixated” is one of her latest releases.
“There are moments when you find potential in love and begin fixating on how great it could be, but then come to terms with it and later realize you deserve better,” she says of the new track. “This song is a reminder for you to find your balance— your rational brain influences your ability to reason and your emotional brain employs intuition. Try not to get fixated on one aspect and ignore everything else.”
Like many of us, Yasmeen’s been stuck inside for months, but she’s still keeping busy refining her craft. Lately, she’s written a lot about various perspectives on heartbreak and other subjects of introspection that arise at 3 a.m. Hence, her latest song out today, “3AM.”
“When you’re confined to a home for months during a pandemic, you tend to dive deep into your thoughts,” she says. “Don’t be afraid of where your mind wanders off to. That’s when you get innovative, or even end up writing a good song… I hope my music inspires you to confront your emotions or even inspires you to write about everything that keeps you up at night.”
Yasmeen is also super pumped to release a treasure trove of new tunes before it’s time to ring in 2021.
“I’m sitting on a bunch of written and recorded [material] that I’m dying to share with everyone,” she says. “This is the year for that.”
But if you just can’t wait to unleash her new releases upon your ears, hit Yasmeen up on social media and check out some of her previous performance videos.
“The compliments that stick with me the most are the ones from people who personally reach out to tell me how much of an impact my music has had in their life— whether it’s listeners going through breakups and relating to ‘Half of Me’ and ‘Fixated,’ or others finding inspiration and motivation through ‘Made to Win’,” she said. “There’s a moment during the live performance where I get everyone to sing ‘we were made to win’ and this is absolutely my favorite part of the night. Hearing everyone sing that out loud and believe it with their heart gives me chills.”
In the future, Yasmeen would love to participate in a pop/country duo, but in the meantime, she’d like to tell listeners to “find your truth and win with that” if they wish to follow in her footsteps— because after all, they were made to win.
“I strive to lead a life through an optimistic lens, because… we are surrounded by obstacles and opportunities at any given time, and our personal perspective dictates our reaction,” she shares. “[I want to achieve] a stadium world tour and using my platform to help as many people as I can. I can die peacefully after that.”
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