The journey of soulful singer-songwriter Rhian Benson has been long and sometimes harsh. In the end, however, her journey molded her into what she is today - a powerful, versatile and unique talent on the rise. Rhian's debut album, "Gold Coast" is a mixture of many worlds, all combining into a unique blend of R&B, jazz and reggae. Above all, however, Rhian Benson's music is all about soul - the soul of compassion, love and beauty through music.
Born in Ghana, West Africa into the renowned Ashanti Tribe, Rhian entered the world as part of a family already well acquainted with the world of music. Her mother, from Wales in Britain, is a singer and her father, an Ashanti dignitary from Ghana, is a guitarist. Music was always a major thread binding Rhian's family together; her grandfather performed with an acclaimed big band in the '50s and '60s, her eldest uncle was a highlife singer, and her youngest uncle a record producer.
"I remember sitting next to my granddad on the piano during our visits to the village," Rhian remembers. "I felt very comfortable there. It made me feel more at ease about learning to play and made music very natural to me."
Growing up with music all around her, it is no wonder that Rhian couldn't deny the rhythms pounding through her own soul. From an early age, she was immersed in the sounds of Miles Davis, Earth Wind & Fire and Ella Fitzgerald, as well as the musical lives of her own family members. When the family moved to India when she was a child, Rhian's love of music blossomed even further and she began playing the piano; she wrote her first song at nine.
The family later returned to Ghana and Rhian changed gears for a while. While music was the love of her soul, she knew education was also essential to her development. So Rhian left Ghana to attend the prestigious London School of Economics, and later attended Harvard. For a while, she seemed to lose track of her earlier dreams of a musical career - instead studying for a career in the more mundane field of banking. While she was attending Harvard in Boston, however, something happened that would change her life forever.
Rhian's mother was struck down with a life-threatening illness. Wanting to be with her mother in this critical time, Rhian returned to London to take of her while she underwent treatment and through her recovery. To be Ashanti, says Rhian, is to place family as the most important thing in your life. "I felt I had to be there with her during these hard times." While she was taking care of her mother, Rhian rediscovered music, using it to find strength to get her through the experience.
"It was a major turning point for me," Rhian says. "I couldn't ignore my deep-rooted desire to be creative and artistically expressive any longer. I cane to realize that taking a risk, following your dreams and listening to your strongest instincts is the only way to become one with your spirit."
Once Rhian realized that music was the love she could not abandon any longer, she decided not to go back to Harvard and instead focus on her musical career. She began performing at small venues and in short order was discovered and signed by DKG Music.
"We were all taken with Rhian's talent and even more importantly with her natural empathy for people and instinctive connection with audiences," says DKG Music CEO China Dansforth.
After signing on with DKG, Rhian began working on her debut album. Unlike many modern artists, Rhian wrote all of her own lyrics for the CD, and composed most of the music on guitar and keyboards herself - collaborating with a close-knit group of other talented musicians. "Gold Coast," titled after the historical name for Ghana and the 'golden coasts' of California, is the result of two years of intense effort. Co-produced with Grammy-winning producers James Poyser (Lauryn Hill, The Roots) and Bob Power (D'Angelo, Tribe Called Quest, Erykah Badu) - "Gold Coast" represents both the end and the beginning of a long journey for Rhian.
Billboard magazine calls the album "a breath of fresh air," but in truth, Rhian's music is more of a passionate gale force wind designed to shake the soul and intoxicate the senses. USA Today has called Benson "one of R&B's brightest talents... mold-breaking music straight from the soul." But Rhian's music is more than that. There is something just beyond description in Rhian's voice and lyrics, something that is missing in the songs of many modern artists. There is no easy way to define that certain quality that makes Benson's music more than ordinary, except to say that she manages to be both real and unreal in the same moments; both worldly and ethereal all at the same time.
Rhian's music, much like the rest of her, is hard to pin down. Some might say that Rhian falls in the realm of Sade and Norah Jones, but she can't really be compared to either. The tone and style of her music varies with each new song; sometimes glowing with a fresh innocence and simplicity that will steal your heart, or roaring with a sultry and sexy power that just pounds into your soul. Rhian Benson embraces both the old and the new, capturing the essence of modern day R&B while incorporating the history of her Ashanti roots and her lifelong journey through both place and time.
If there is anything more intoxicating than listening to Rhian's album, it is watching her turn those songs into visual masterpieces on the small screen. Rhian Benson is more than a pleasure to watch in her videos, she is living, breathing work of art. You never know what to expect from one moment to the next. She can take on the role of the elegant diva, or come across as the girl next door you wish you had as a neighbor. Her videos incorporate the elegance and glamour of a soulful diva, yet, the influence of Rhian's unique Ashanti roots and British background flavor every image.
Since "Gold Coast" debuted, it has seen received rave reviews across the board and held the #1 Spins/requests at clubs in Washington D.C., Detroit and San Francisco. Rhian has opened for Grammy-nominate artists Raphael Saadiq, Musiq and Floetry, among others. She was also invited by Black Entertainment Television to host and co-produce her own series called "Gold Coast." The series kicked off with a half-hour 'Who is Rhian Benson?' special on November 16th and ran on BET and BET Jazz. She also recently completed a highly successful national tour with R&B superstar Brian McKnight. Videos from "Gold Coast" can be found currently playing on BET and MTV2.
