Naomi Sharon’s Leap of Faith
Dutch and Carribian singer/songwriter Naomi Sharon spent several years split between her career performing in musical theater ranging from The Lion King to Dreamgirls and solo recording artist ambitions. Even though she attended theater school and learned to develop herself vocally, she was drawn to soulful sounds. Meanwhile, she knew her time in big musicals was closing.
“When I was doing musical theater I was always thinking this will end someday,” Sharon told BET.com. “I just have to have my own sound, music and purpose instead of working for a big corporation like Disney or whatever. When I was home or I had a day off, I was making sure I was making music, performing or doing some covers of songs.”
Working eight shows a week for three years straight while pushing her creative endeavors may have trained her to perform under pressure while managing her energy. However, the artistic maturation came at a profound cost. Sharon would require vocal surgery that required a lengthy recovery time and place her in a space filled with life reassessments.
“I couldn’t speak for a week and I couldn’t sing after four weeks,” explained Sharon, who was in disbelief then. “I was doubting myself asking if I was good enough. I remember the doctor saying no, I have good technique. It’s just that I’m a human being. It was at that point I was like yeah, exactly. I’m a human being and I should do things for myself. At least if I do something for myself and injure myself for myself instead of someone else or a corporation.”
Once her recovery period was over, Sharon leaned more into creating enough music to garner a significant following with singles including “The Moon,” “Breeze,” “Daughter of the Sun” and “Hills” among others. There was a soulful feel to her earlier music that felt like an accumulation of artists she’s influenced by, like Stevie Wonder, Sade, Billy Withers, Nina Simone, and Dionne Warwick. Despite growing up in The Netherlands, Sharon understands how American soul has formulated her music pallet.
“I’m a very emotional person, so I tend to listen to things that go deeper,” explained Sharon, whose dad was a music producer and mom a singer. “If we’re talking about Black history and the music that we created and generated, it was insane how deep that went. I think that the way I grew up, it was very important for my parents and family to implement that in life and really take that seriously as well.”
One individual who came across her music was October’s Very Own, Drake. Hitting Sharon’s Instagram DMs, the conversation led to a FaceTime call where the megastar explained everything about his label, OVO Sounds. Following a face-to-face meeting months later, she signed to the label home of PARTYNEXTDOOR, DVSN, Majid Jordan, and others.
“You’re not just a number and there are not a hundred artists on the label so everyone has attention for you,” explained Sharon. “There’s a lot of freedom and nothing is forced. Even though the label they’re all guys and I’m the only girl, I have a fantastic team with a lot of women and they’re very keen to have more women in the team as well. It’s like a family with bigger brothers or cousins that look out for you.”
OVO Sounds would announce her signing at the top of 2023 as the label’s first female artist. Her introductory single “Another Life” also saw a change in sound for Sharon, which leaned more into the international dance sonics that wouldn’t feel too out of place on Drizzy’s Honestly Nevermind album from last year. According to Sharon, she was inspired by her label boss’ constant musical exploration.
“He’s experimenting and he told me that I should experiment a little bit more with my style,” she explained. “I was doing more neo-soul and not much up-tempo songs. So Drake kind of told me I should look at other genres and see if I could make that my own and give it my sound.”
This is where Obsidian, her latest project released today, October 20, comes in. Featuring singles like “Definition of Love,” “Celestial,” and “Regardless” alongside “Another Life,” the album balances slower soulful tracks such as “Myrrh” with club-ready uptempo joints like “Holding In Place.”
Sharon hopes that Obsidian will inspire people or motivate people to get into a healing process, considering the stone the album is named after is a stone providing psychic protection. For her, spirituality is heavily baked into everything she does, from music-making to photo shoots.
“In my music and things that I do, spirituality has a big purpose,” said Sharon. “I just hope that people feel inspired to dig deeper for themselves and in themselves through this album. I want to touch people on a very deep level to their souls and have them thinking about deeper things that they may be struggling with or maybe resonate with them.”
