Jacquie Lee has just dropped a new song “For You.” The song is the third in a trilogy of tunes from her upcoming EP due out later this fall.
Much has changed for the singer since competing at the age of 17 on The Voice season 5 in 2013. She’s gained confidence in her own skills as a songwriter. But as she told Billboard Magazine in a recent interview, the period of time after the show, when she released her debut EP The Broken Ones in 2014, wasn’t easy.
“That whole time period was stressful, just because nobody really believed in me as a writer. I didn’t even believe in myself as a writer,” Jacquie told Billboard. “It took me a second after the show to kind of reflect on everything and be honest with myself about what I wanted. Kind of just be like, ‘F**k what everyone thinks I should be or wants me to be, or how they can make the most money,’ and get myself out of that environment. Putting [myself] into a place of what I want, and what’s true to me.”
Part of her path to self-discovery has involved a move from her native New Jersey to Los Angeles, which she took with fellow former Voice contestant Caroline Pennell about a year and a half ago. ”
“It was a lot of change,” she told Billboard regarding the move. “It was a reality check in so many ways but also inspiring in a lot of other ways. I mean, this whole EP is inspired from change and the move, and not sugarcoating any of the feelings that I went through — which is so refreshing, because in the past it was a lot more censored.”
“‘For You’ is kind of just a letter that I wrote to myself,” she explained. “I do keep journaling, no matter how bad it gets, or whatever state of mind I’m in. Journaling has always been something that’s helped me get out of it. So that’s where all my lyrics come from. ‘What are you going through?’ It’s such a freeing kind of experience that’s way more therapeutic if it’s just you, your life.”
“I was just trying to, I guess, shake myself and be like, ‘Jacquie, what the f**k are you doing?’ I was partying a lot and trying to distract myself… That was the moment I realized that you can’t rely on anyone else to be a rock for you. You need to be that person for yourself. Life’s gonna throw so much shit at you. That’s unavoidable, but you’ve gotta hang in there.”
Jacquie became close with the late Christina Grimmie, on The Voice Tour in 2014. “She was just like, ‘Yeah, Jac, no matter what, just stay true to who you are, because nobody knows who you are better than yourself.’”
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“‘Running from your heavier problems’ [a line from “For You”], that is something that is a habit for me,” Jacquie confessed to Billboard. “And I don’t even realize that I run from my problems, and I suppress them, and so it all comes crashing down. And I make an EP about it.”
“But I’ve realized that it is OK to be anxious or feel lost in life. All of that is normal, and you’ll get through it. My music, at least this EP, is kind of a journey from start to finish of the realization of that.”
If you are searching for Jacquie on digital services, leave off the last name. She has joined the corps of one named entertainers. Download from iTunes Download from Amazon
