New Artist #8: Jason Derulo

I first ran across Jason Derulo a couple years ago while reading a feature story on Diddy. At the time Derulo was writing songs for Danity Kane, Donnie Klang, and Cassie.

Born Jason Desrouleaux, 20, (he changed the spelling for his stage name to make it easier to pronounce), the Miami native has been in song writing since he was 16. He released his debut single, “Whatcha Say” in August and the song became a smash, hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November. I know I couldn’t get the song out of my head for months.
While many listeners simply took to the song’s hook, Derulo’s voice sounds somewhat of a slightly deeper Jeremih and flows well over the Imogen Heap-sampled (“Hide and Seek”) track.

To be honest, I haven’t heard much else from him other than his next single, the guitar-infused, “In My Head.” Yet, I really like his voice and feel he has a serious chance to catch the hearts of both R&B and pop fans this year. His self-titled debut album on the Beluga Heights/Warner Music Group label drops March 2. I’m interested to see how he sells. My guess is he may start out slowly because “Whatcha Say” was released so long in advance and his second single isn’t close to that one. Nevertheless, I expect his sales to pick up with a third single next summer. Whatever happens, the kid’s got talent and I expect him to be up for plenty of hardware over the course of the next year.