WE ARE WORLDWIDE: CECE TENEAL X WORLDWIDE MAGAZINE

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4. SPRING SUMMER 2023.

TALENT CECE TENEAL ★ PHOTOGRAPHY DAYVE STEWART ★ INTERVIEW BY ANDYOMO ★ INTERN JORDI NOVAK

AndyOmo: Hi Cece, thank you so much for coming on to interview with us. We appreciate it, and all the time that it takes. How are you doing today? 

CeCe: I'm doing well, thank you. It's my pleasure.  

Let's start by telling our readers a little bit about where you're from and how long you've been in your industry. 

My name is CeCe Teneal. I am a soul, blues singer originally from a little small town outside of Orlando, called Osteen Florida. I have been doing this for a little over 20 years now. I am a proud black queer woman and that has posed at the beginning of my career, some significant challenges. But I'm glad to say now that as we move forward in the world, and people start to open up their minds I've been able to use my musical platform to catapult that advocacy for the art and marginalized communities. So that's kind of my thing, that's my jam. I love being an advocate for black women, queer women, and marginalized communities. So that's really who Cece is, and if you talk to anybody, that's what they'll say I'm all about. 

We love that here at Worldwide as that is specifically what we put a lot of focus on, on creating space for marginalized communities and voices to shine through, so we line up with your values. Diving into your music a little bit, you've been in this industry for some time now, can you tell us a bit about how you got started in this career? 

I started singing in 2002 at a little pen mic spot in Orlando and never thought, you know, in a million years that I would be, you know, 48 countries, later performing. Yeah, I never thought that it would be that. I currently tour all over the world, doing a tribute to Aretha Franklin n addition to my original music but that has been kind of my claim to fame if you will. I love doing a tribute to her music and just trying to preserve and make sure that soul music stays alive. There's so much going on right now that it's not music of substance and so I pride myself on trying to make sure that we sustain music that has paved the way for us.

I like that. And did you always know this was a passion for you and music specifically? 

No actually. My mom was a singer and she traveled all over the world, opening for people like BB King and Wilson Pickett. So for me, my dream was the American dream, the white picket fence, you know, getting married, having children, a dog, you know, climbing the ladder in corporate America. That was my idea of what my life would be, and then at 21 years old, someone handed me a microphone and it was almost as if the light came on. I was like, wait a minute, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. So it wasn't my whole life, but definitely at a very young age, like 21. I decided, you know what? I'm going to try to do something with this. 

Wow. That's awesome. Growing up did you have any favorite artists, besides Aretha, that inspired your love for music and eventually helped lead to influence your music style?

I think if I had to say anyone I would say Aretha but then I think about all of the Divas, right? So Whitney Houston and Tina Turner and Anita Baker. Those ladies inspired me from a vocal standpoint and if you listen to me, you'll kind of hear a combination of all of their styles in my style. Another is Chaka Khan, of course, because of just some of the grit that goes into it, the passion that goes into their actual vocal prowess. Lyrics are one thing but there's a different level of soul that you can feel when you hear that, passion in someone's voice, so I would say the soul Divas. They helped me to hone my craft and just anything soulful. So a lot of musical influences not just one.

I love that and I have taken a chance to just check out some of your music and a couple of other things that you've done and I will say you have such a beautiful, strong, powerful passionate voice. And I encourage our readers to check out your music, which you can find on all streaming platforms. Kind of going off of that a little bit, who would you say that you write music for? Do you write music for your Yourself, for maybe a younger version of yourself, or maybe the marginalized communities we were talking about earlier?

I think I write it for myself. Most of the things that I've written about or even when I go in, you know, with other people to write music it is typically relative to things that I'm going through. It's hard for me to sing songs or write songs that I don't connect with. I have to connect with the message or have been there before or have experienced someone very close to me going through it before. So, I would say that I write music for right now, right? But also timeless music things that people will always go through, things that people always need. So like, if you take a song like 5 or 5000, it's talking about being the best, you can be going as hard as you can and not quitting right? And so people will always need that story. People will always need that message. They will always need to be encouraged and empowered and lift it up and so I try to make music that's for me right now but also that can stand the test of time. 

I love that. Talking a little bit more about the creative process of creating music, when you are creating music, do you write all of your lyrics yourself? Do you bounce things off with bandmates and producers or what is the creative process look like for you a little bit?

Interesting that you ask me that Andy because I actually am recreating my creative process. In the past, I would have people submit songs to me and I would say, I like this one, this one, and this one, and then the band and I would get together and we'd make it happen and I would write a little bit, you know, tweaking lyrics or telling people concepts, things in that nature. But what I'm doing with my new project, which I'm hoping to record in August is, I am bringing back where everybody comes in one room together to create the vibe, write the lyrics, create the music and we all kind of do it right there together. I'm loving that creative process because you capture the energy of all the creatives in the room, and so I would say that is my favorite creative process just vibing out.

I like that. It sounds very collaborative to say the least, finding these spaces and teams where you can collaborate out of a place where it's authentically about the art and you know, the human connection. It sounds very inspiring to us. And kind of talking about authenticity a little bit, would you say you ever struggle with creating or with trying to stay true to yourself while you're creating? Specifically in a world of creating for yourself vs creating to be marketable?

Yeah, I did. I think my first album, 'Train from Osteen', I really kind of fell back and allowed a label to try and create who they wanted me to be. And while we won some awards for that album, it didn't feel like mine. It felt like I was just a singer for a record. So then for '5 or 5000', and now this new project that's coming up, I am asking for creative control and making sure that I'm able to be 100% unequivocally CeCe, right? Black girl, magic, plus size woman, a queer woman married to a woman. You know, I'm everything that I am because if it's not authentic, people can tell when it's not real. So I just have to be myself and that is what I think has garnered me success over the last five to seven years because I am holistically myself. The best version of me comes when you allow me to be me, right? 

Thank you for that. Being an artist in today's world is not easy, on top of the fact that you are a queer black woman, how do you stay positive and creative on your creative journey through the tough times that come with being a musician? 

I think positivity comes from authenticity. When you are allowed to be yourself, there's no lying, right? The way that I am positive in this realm is to just be honest with myself, be honest, about who I am, be honest about the type of music, I want to sing, be honest about the type of connections I want to make. That is where my positivity comes from, from being real and honest. 

I love that, seriously, I think that honesty has become underrated in a field where quite frankly, we rely on authenticity to thrive. So I think without that, it does build a facade that keeps on building and then you do end up with a lot of people that don't even know why they're in the industries that they are anymore.

And they're sad and depressed and they can't figure out where they got derailed. And you got derailed when you stopped being you. Someone convinced you that you are not good enough and I think that's a big deal to like, I am okay with myself, I know I am good enough. What I am and who I've become and my morals and my values and the person I am to my core, are enough. I don't have to try to do it or do it better than anybody else or do it like anybody else because what makes me special is me.

Period. Okay, jumping off of what you said, what is some advice that you can give to young queer and/or black and brown creatives in your industry or letter trying to break into your industry. 

It's gonna be the same thing. I know we kind of have a common theme going here of authenticity and realness, but I would tell a young creative, whether it be music, whether it be literature, whether be dance or whatever it is, I would say Be Yourself, the best version of yourself, because the world will embrace you. Maybe not the whole world, but there's a subset of people that you can call your tribe, that will embrace the real you. Don't try to have everybody love you, if everybody loves you, that's cool. But the most important thing is that you have authentic people that love you and your authentic space.

No totally, it's being your biggest supporter before allowing anyone else to. I love that. Would you say that you have found your purpose through music and the authenticity of your artistic expression? And if so, what is something, you're actively doing to fulfill that purpose?

You know, I live my purpose every single day, I do. I've noticed that in my quest to preserve Soul music, music from the 60s, the 70s, and the 80s; in my quest to do that, I'm serving my purpose every single time I take the stage with this Aretha tribute. My demographic audience is probably age 50 to 90 and to have those people coming to a theater and have them leave differently, I know that I'm fulfilling my purpose. I perform all the time and see the response after I'm done and know that that person has danced for the first time in a long time and they're singing to the top of their voice when I sing a song. Seeing couples snuggle up next to each other and get a little closer or come in and look like they're angry and then leave holding hands. Those are the things that let me know that I am fulfilling my purpose every single day. 

I love that and the kind of bouncing off of that. Would you say that those moments are constant, or would you say those moments are rare and few and you learn to appreciate them for what they are? 

It happens all the time and it doesn't make me any less grateful that it is all the time. Every time it happens which is generally any time I do this show, it makes me more grateful and lets me know that I am doing exactly what God has me here to do, which is to spread love, joy, peace, and unity and hope through music to his people. Whether they're black, white, Puerto Rican, or Haitian. It doesn't matter. We're all part of one human race, and once the music starts all of the colors disappear. Someone told me one time that when you play in the key of 'C' in the USA, it's the same 'C' in Ukraine, and in England and South America, in Hawaii, they're all the key of 'C'. So music is truly the universal language. If we use music in place of love, then we can use music to spread love all over the world.

I completely agree. Music is a storybook of Love, truth, and authenticity. Well, I appreciate you just taking the time for us to be able to get to know who Cece Teneal is a little bit more. One final question, and you kind of mentioned this a little bit, but you talked about an album. What else can we expect to see from you in the near future? 

So I am recording an album but I don't want to put a time frame on it because I want to make sure that it's done correctly. But you can bet your bottom dollar that when it is ready, I will certainly be back in contact with you so that your Worldwide Magazine viewers and readers, will have access to it because we going worldwide! 

Thank you, Cece, seriously, your positivity, the love, it shines through and that's exactly what we at Worldwide truly are looking to create a community and not just a collection of beautiful art.

Thank you, Andy!