Sarah Potenza Releases Powerful New Video

“Diamond is an open letter to a fourteen-year-old Sarah. I want to tell her not to cry over those boys. I want to reach all the little Sarah’s out there and tell them, “Girl, just wait. Your turn is coming. You’re a diamond.””- Sarah Potenza

Vocal powerhouse Sarah Potenza is debuting her latest music video “Diamond,” a stunning track off her recently released, critically-acclaimed album, ‘Road To Rome.’

The arresting clip, which features full-figured dance troupe Pretty Big Movement, premiered on Plus Model Magazine, and is now streaming here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=gTK5uppPSyM.

Potenza says, “To cast dancers for ‘Diamond’, I had to consider more than just the music or the look. Could the dancers live my lyrics? Could they pull from their own lives and say, ”Oh that line, I feel that so deeply that I want to express it”? That is what’s at the center of my art. So casting women who had these experiences and the emotional capacity to express them was a big priority for me.

I first heard about Pretty Big Movement through a video that came across my Facebook feed in 2017. (PBM founder) Akira’s look and dance moves caught my eye, but it was her story that caught my attention. She had danced in two Beyonce videos, and still couldn’t get an agent, because of her size. I knew that feeling all too well. I was in awe of what she did next. Akira started her very own dance troupe, Pretty Big Movement, which has since been featured all over the world.

So of course producing the ‘Diamond’ music video, I decided I was gonna toss the song her way and see if it resonated with her. Within the hour we were on the phone laughing and chatting about our similar spirit and experiences as full-figured gals of the entertainment industry. After that conversation, I was sold on the idea that Pretty Big Movement was the perfect choice.”

In talking about the inspiration for the song, Potenza adds, ““From my earliest crushes through my bachelorette years, the pattern was always the same. The boys would laugh at all my jokes, be in awe of my talents, and then ask me if my quiet, more submissive girlfriend would go out with them. I spent a lot of time feeling ashamed of who I was. I tried so hard to crack the code. Tried to be smaller in every way, but I just couldn’t squeeze myself into the glass slipper. Today I am grateful to have failed because I wanted things that they could never give to me. Diamond is an open letter to a fourteen-year-old Sarah. I want to tell her not to cry over those boys. I want to reach all the little Sarah’s out there and tell them, “Girl, just wait. Your turn is coming. You’re a diamond.”

Known to millions as a semi-finalist on season 8 of The Voice, Sarah has since gone on to release a critically-acclaimed debut solo LP ‘Monster’ in 2016, which promptedRolling Stone to gush, “Potenza is to the blues what Adele is to pop: a colossal-voiced singer who merges her old-school influences with a modernistic sound.”

Her latest LP, ‘Road to Rome,’ is an album of self-empowered R&B, swaggering soul, and contemporary blues. Co-written by Potenza, her husband Ian Crossman and friend Justin Wiseman, produced by Jordan Brooke Hamlin (Indigo Girls, Lucy Wainwright Roche), and recorded with a female-heavy cast of collaborators, the record isn’t just her own story. It’s the story of all artists — particularly women, who remain the minority within the male-dominated music industry — who’ve learned to trust their instincts, refusing to let mainstream trends dilute their own artistic statements.

Buy/stream ‘Road To Rome’ here: http://smarturl.it/sarahpotenza.

Upcoming shows:

APR 18 Treehouse Café- Bainbridge Island, WA

APR 19 House Show- Woodinville, WA

APR 27 Bootleg Music Cafe- Sacramento, CA

APR 28 House Show- San Francisco, CA

MAY 02 The Hotel Cafe- Los Angeles, CA

MAY 03 C Gallery On Broadway- Long Beach, CA

JUN 24 City Winery Nashville, TN

What others saying about Sarah Potenza’s ‘Road To Rome’

“…hard to ignore, even harder to pin down and as kinetic as a neon orange lightning bolt.– Rolling Stone

“The world needs Sarah Potenza’s voice…”- No Depression

“…a loud and proud exultation from the onetime Voice contestant.”- Rolling Stone

“Not only will Potenza’s voice move you. Her words, as irreverent as they are at times, may empower you…”- Glide Magazine

“A feminist battle cry — appropriately released on International Women’s Day. Potenza fuses bluesy vocals and a rock n’ roll attitude to create her most powerful sound to date.”- Popdust

“…“Diamond” is an anthem of self-acceptance and just the sort of song we all need when we’ve lost touch with our own shine.”- Audiofemme

“Sarah Potenza is a one-of-a-kind singer of our time. Watch for her because this talented singer-songwriter is, without question, going places.”-Rock and Blues Muse

“…universal anthems written with inclusivity in mind…brimming with confidence and boasting production that calls to mind the Mark Ronson vibe of Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black.'”- Rolling Stone

“Potenza is to the blues what Adele is to pop: a colossal-voiced singer who merges her old-school influences with a modernistic sound.”- Rolling Stone

An empowerment anthem can be a beautiful thing, a dramatic transcending of suffering’s isolating power. But what’s glorious about Sarah Potenza’s blistering, riff-propelled personal anthem “Monster” is that it doesn’t seek to transcend the unpleasantness of her reality — the fact that she’s been told countless times in countless ways that the body she inhabits is socially unacceptable. Instead, we hear a woman’s fierce determination to stay present, to stare down those who would shame her, to revel in her corporeality.- NPR (“Song We Love”)

“You won’t find any gimmicks on Monster, just pure unadulterated rock and roll. As such, it should find an audience among Americana/Roots enthusiasts and traditional rock fans. Rolling Stone called her a “rock ‘n soul powerhouse” and Potenza has been rightly compared to commanding divas like Janis Joplin, Etta James even Aretha Franklin. We concur.”- No Depression

“Despite boffo ratings each year, NBC’s The Voice doesn’t have a strong track record of transforming contestants into stars. Hopefully that changes with Sarah Potenza—a casualty during season 8—whose scorching, take-me-as-I-am “Monster,” the title track to her debut album, might be the year’s most spirited girl-power anthem. Potenza cut her teeth singing covers in Chicago blues bars before becoming a fixture in the East Nashville music scene, and she combines a fiery voice and crunchy roots rock with a distinct flair for showmanship.”– Garden & Gun

“Whether you’re new to Potenza or not, you need to hear this voice which has the power not only to move you. She might heal you too.”- Elmore Magazine