Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
I usually try to watch at least an episode of each UK or US TV talent show, just to check out the format and see if there are any familiar flop stars among the auditionees, but I couldn’t even bring myself to do that with Fox series The Four. In fact, the only two things I knew about it was that despite never being commissioned for British TV, it was created by ITV, based on X Factor’s Six Chair Challenge, and that it created this entertaining moment. So I was surprised to discover that one of its finalists (not the actual winner) has gone on to grow a huge online following and earned herself a major record deal. Zhavia Ward now has nearly 3 million Instagram followers (for comparison, the last winner of The Voice US, also a young female singer, has 110k) and features on the new Diplo song Welcome to the Party from the Deadpool 2 soundtrack. Quite how she pulled this of is still a mystery to me, but she does have pop star potential: a strong voice, distinctive look, sweet personality, and an ideal age (17). Since signing to Columbia she’s been working with some of my fave writers, including Priscilla Renea and Jin Jin, so let’s hope for some poptastic tunes to come.