It’s a special is Lift off for Raquel Sofia…
The Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, nominated for Best New Artist at this year’s Latin Grammys, has received a nomination in Vevo’s artist development program, Lift.
Launched in 2011, the program lends promotional support to a handful of emerging artists per year, giving them a special landing page on Vevo with exclusive content including interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, video premieres and more to expose their music to a broader audience.
Jessie J, Sam Smith, Lorde, and Tori Kelly are among the famous artists who make up part of the Vevo Lift alumni.
In this current round, Sofia is up for the Vevo Lift slot with Canadian R&B singer/songwriter Alessia Cara and Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson.
Online fan voting determines the winner, but if Sofia — who herself has a love affair with jazz, blues, folk, rock and pop — does anywhere near as well as she’s done on Spotify (17 million total streams and counting), she stands a good chance.
And then there’s the fact that she’s learned from the best, having performed backing vocals for Shakira and Juanes, among others.
“They’re so professional and so talented and they’ve worked so hard, so you get to see why they are at the top,” she recently told Billboard of working with major artists. “So I guess more than advice I learned just from being around them, like osmosis, just absorbing everything that they did, watching them perform. It’s just incredible.”
“I just remember listening to a lot of Bob Marley, the Beatles, Juan Luis Guerra and Shakira. Wanting to do that, especially the songwriting part,” she told us when discussing her childhood in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico and the influences around her debut album, Te Quiero Los Domingos.
Fans can vote for Sofia here until October 19.