Crystal Kay spills a lil' tea on her cover album in her December 2020 interview with Billboard Japan

Crystal Kay had held gigs over the course of December for Billboard in Osaka and Tokyo, just as she did during the holiday season last year. So she sat down with Billboard to discuss her career, how she finds performing these days, and shared the most that we've heard about this covers album since it was first announced almost a year ago.

Okay bitch.

I'll admit that I used Google Translate for this shit. So I'm only picking out things that seemed clear and correspond to things Crystal has said herself in other interviews and / or in her Instagram posts.

• Crystal genuinely took submissions of songs from fans seriously, whittling through them with her team. 

• Crystal recorded a bunch of demos to see how she sounded singing certain covers, in order to settle on what she and her team would proceed ahead with, and those she would not. This may partly explain why this album is taking so long. 

• Crystal seems to be very involved in the production process of this album, giving thoughts on mixes, the sounds, what she likes and what she doesn't. Whether she'll be credited for it is another thing entirely. Probably not. Crystal needs herself a Teruzane Utada to manage her shit.

• Most of the songs that Crystal has covered for her album have been those by male artists. The general jist as to why seems to be that Crystal didn't feel that songs sung by women felt different or unique enough from the originals when she sang them. It's an interesting point, especially when you think of an artist like Mariah Carey who has covered songs throughout her career, most of which have been by male artists. And the likes of Beni and Kumi Koda, whose cover albums also feature a heavy weighting toward covers of songs sung by men. I'm sure in some cases it's just a matter of preference for the song itself. But Crystal's reasoning is one I'd never considered before.

• Crystal was living in New York for most of 2017 and recorded a shit load of material while she was there. We're probably never gonna hear it though.

• Crystal was asked how making it in the States, and of course BTS came up. Crystal said that she feels the best thing for artists to do if they want to break the States is not to change their sound to be 'American'. She cited Shakira and Rosalía as two notable examples of artists who have had massive success in the US with non-English songs, without conforming their sounds to the market. Although I personally wouldn't lump them in with Korean or Japanese artists. Latin Pop and Reggaetón have a history of long having had crossed over in the US and UK. And artists who have crossed over via these genres also pass enough to hopscotch between race identity labels.  But that's a whole 'nother conversation.

Crystal rarely does interviews with the press, which is probably not by choice, but nobody really caring, which is a shame. Crystal is very open and has really clear views on her career and how she sees the business generally. So her being so active on Instagram is nice, because fans get a sense of that, regardless of whether publications want to give her the time or not.

At time of writing there is still no release date or info on this damn cover album. The latest single from it "I Love..." was gorgeous and one of the best singles Crystal had released in years, but it just came and went, which was to be expected due to it sounding like a Christmas song which wouldn't see it played much past December. Also, it's Crystal Kay. Her shit comes and goes like gas these days. A real shame, because it truly was a great song. Universal didn't do a damn thing for it. They didn't even bother to release the full music video to YouTube once the song came out.

HENNYWAY.

Crystal Kay's discography is now available on Spotify, so run up those streams.

📰 Crystal Kay's new song "I Love..." release interview for Christmas @ Billboard Japan

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