A short yet deftly composed repertoire, the EP forms a coherent whole that not only showcases Chance’s vocal range and lyrical abilities, but also ruminates on the process of growing up. The EP, Somewhere Over My Head, was released in 2016, and it became the powerful statement Chance needed on his reemergence into the music scene - as a singer-songwriter, an instrumentalist, and, most importantly, an unabashedly confused, lost, and growing teenager. Ultimately, Chance cancelled production of the premature album, instead announcing an EP to be released two years later. It seems that while Chance plunged into writing music with devotion, hoping to redefine his image without losing traction, his musical style was still in soft-focus. The two tracks are jarring in conjunction, albeit compelling on their own. In 2014, Chance signaled his return with the announcement of his sophomore album, Planet X, previewed by the release of several new tracks: “Thrilla in Manila” is a startling piece, playing with erratic, hurrying beats, straddling the alternative and funk on the other hand, “Temptation” is a meandering ballad, bearing passing resemblance to “Speechless” by Lady Gaga. After a two-year hiatus, Chance began anew. Not with the rush and abandon of his youth, pulled alongside by an industry giant, but with a gradual search of identity, a cascade of raw lyricism on romance, loneliness, change. But Chance was first and foremost a musician, be it on live television or in his suburban Oklahoma home, and he persisted. Where to go from here? It would be easy to call it quits, reminisce his time in the limelight and move on. His manager followed suit.įrom living in fame to having his hands tied behind his back, and, in his own words during an interview with Fuse, with “a chip on shoulder,” Chance was at a standoff. While working on his second record, Chance was dropped from his label. Thrust into studios, interviews, live sessions, Chance was poised to become the next teen pop sensation - until the release of his first full-length album, Hold on ‘Til the Night, fell south of commercial expectations. Dressed in a green-and-white polo shirt, with an unaffected demeanor, a charming streak, and indisputable vocal prowess, Chance reenacted the performance on the talk show and inspired Ellen to launch a record label, eleveneleven, just to sign him on as an artist. It later landed him a spot on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Greyson Chance’s initial rise to stardom is one we are all familiar with: at thirteen, he performed a heart-rending cover of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” at his school’s talent show, and a video of the performance became viral on YouTube. This was four years after Chance was dropped from his record label. This was Swedish American Hall, San Francisco, May of 2016. A horizontal line runs through both his first and last names, slicing the words in half, denoting the before and the after, the past and the present, like an avatar of the divided self. It was like a declaration: against a glaring white background on a mid-sized stage, before a crowd of no more than a couple hundred, attended by the faded purple hue of the venue and the faint smell of booze… The name Greyson Chance in thick, black print sits squarely in the middle of the projection wall.
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