“High Hopes” for six-year-old jazz singer Sophie Fatu’s recording debut
The youngest “America’s Got Talent” star is in the studio working on “Love is…,” an EP slated for September release.
LOS ANGELES (9 July 2019): Six-year-old jazz singer Sophie Fatu charmed the nation singing Frank Sinatra classics on national television and her videos have amassed over 150 million views. She cheekily called “Mr. Simon” (Cowell) her favorite judge when she became the youngest contestant ever on “America’s Got Talent”; she told Ellen DeGeneres secrets on the host’s top-rated daytime show before crooning “Fly Me To The Moon”; and she teasingly asked Steve Harvey what happened to his hair on “Little Big Shots” prior to belting out “My Way.” Now the bubbly chanteuse is working on her debut recording, a six-song set of selections from the Great American Songbook sung by her biggest influences: Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nina Simone and Michael Bublé. Sophie’s “Love is…” EP is slated for September release.
Sophie is an effervescent spark, a joyous entertainer with a bluesy jazz voice who exemplifies “born to sing” and “an old soul in a young body.” Even her mother, award-winning classical music pianist and vocalist Victoria Fatu, describes her middle child as “a male crooner in a little girl’s body. Her style and delivery are more patterned after male singers than any of the female vocal legends like Nina Simone or Ella Fitzgerald.”
On the surface, Sophie’s desire to sing is simple: “I want to sing to make people happy.” But the maturity of her underlying mission has meaning and significance far beyond her years. “I sing Sinatra because I don’t want people to forget him or this music. I want to travel the world to share this music, to sing these great songs and keep his legacy alive.”
Sophie excitedly elected to sing “(Love is) The Tender Trap” because it fits her sassy and brassy style. The lyrics are about love in a mocking way with a sense of humor, which is more apropos for someone so young. Culling a slow, romantic ballad from Sinatra’s catalogue, “All The Way” spoke to the Fatus the most because of its beauty. Representative of who Sophie is as a performer, “Ain’t That A Kick In The Head” is a statement song for her. She sings it to open her live performances because she literally blooms while singing it. A signature Simone tune, Sophie feels more drawn to Bublé’s version of “Feeling Good” and she dreams of singing it with him one day. “High Hopes” is being completely restyled into a big band number, resisting the obvious cutesy, adorable nature of the song. The jazzy-bluesy production will be strong, explosive, disjointed, creative and unique. Sung by Sinatra and Frankie Lymon, the impish and audacious “Goody Goody” is challenging vocally, requiring plenty of slow vibrato for which Sophie rises to the occasion.
In addition to making the record this summer, Sophie is currently shooting her feature film debut, an action thriller scheduled to arrive in movie theaters in 2020.
The “Love is…” EP contains the following songs:
“(Love is) The Tender Trap”
“All The Way”
“Ain’t That A Kick in the Head”
“Feeling Good”
“High Hopes”
“Goody Goody”
For additional information, please visit https://www.sophiefatumusic.
