Frenchie Davis Discusses Debut Album, Musical Influences & Coming Out

Frenchie Davis discusses the musical direction and influences of her debut album Just Frenchie  and talks about her experiences after “coming out” publicly as a bi-sexual in an interview with Dustin Fitzharris.
Debut Album:

Frenchie says that performing so much dance music, including fan favorite “When Love Takes Over”, on The Voice really caused her to fall in love with the genre and influenced her decision to make her debut album Just Frenchie a dance music album.

Her first single, “Love’s Got a Hold on Me,” is a perfect example of the direction she wants to take her music.  Davis says she loves the energy of dance music and her year living in Germany, where dance is their pop music, cemented her love for the genre.

Davis feels what the current dance music scene is really missing are those big vocals that used to be common back in the era of Martha Wash, C.C. Peniston etc.  She hopes to bring that sound back into mainstream dance music.

Musical Influences:

Davis lists Martha Wash as one of her biggest musical influences and says she had the opportunity to work with her at numerous Gay Pride and GLAAD events.  She also names Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston as musical idols.

In addition to some of music’s great divas, Frenchie says she was heavily influenced by musical theater as a child and loved musicals like Annie and Little Shop of Horrors.

Coming Out:

Davis says she had never planned to come out in such a public way, but she “ realized she had worked too hard on becoming comfortable in her skin to not be completely open.”

Frenchie says the LGBT community has always been very supportive of her career, noting  that “gay boys love their divas.”  She says she has always been a big advocate of equal rights and that performing at LGBT events and venues has really helped open doors for her career.  It was a performance at a local gay bar that earned her an invite to perform on The Voice.

While Davis indicates that her experiences have been mostly positive, she has also experienced negative stereotyping from both the gay and straight community, as well as within the African American community.

Davis says that there is a “lot of homophobia in the black community,” and she has also experienced discrimination from both gay and straight people who are turned off by her bi-sexuality.

When questioned about the recent uproar over Chick Fil-A, she indicated she hadn’t really been following it, but she has been “boycotting them forever,” and thinks religion and politics need to be kept completely separate.

 Mariah Carey as an Idol Judge:

Davis thinks Carey will be an exciting addition to the panel and she always thought it was “weird” to have non-singing critics on the panel.  She thinks having judges on the panel that can “actually sing” will be a positive change for the show.

Frenchie certainly seems like an interesting person and her retro take on dance music could be a refreshing break from the auto-tuned, over-produced music that currently dominates the genre.

You can find out more about Frenchie’s debut album at  Facebook.com/OfficialFrenchie and frenchiedavis.org.

Here’s a Video of Frenchie Peforming her single “Love’s Got a Hold on Me” at comic con: